5 

~^~    »s^ 

•—  H 

z 

0     |" 

OS 

§    a   ^ 

CQ 

u    f^J  ' 

h 

O 

v—'            \K 

W 

l^J 

W 

^                   j^i 

W 

i3!' 

W 

00        "^         j 

cc 

p^    •>    ^ 

w    1 

>         .i 

l^- 

<£                     !2 

D           ^- 

&  

I'KS 

NEW  RELIGIOUS  BOOKS,  FOR  GENERAL  READING. 


J.  &  J.  HARPER   NEW-YORK, 

HAVE  NOW  IN  THE  COURSE  OF  REPUBLICATION, 
THE 

THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY. 


THIS  PUBLICATION  WILL  BE  COMPRISED  IN  A  LIMITED  NUMBER  OF 

VOLUMES,  AND  IS  INTENDED  TO  FORM,  WHEN  COMPLETED, 

A  DIGESTED  SYSTEM  OF  RELIGIOUS  AND 

THE   FIRST   NUMBER  (NOW   PUBLISHED)   CONTAINS 

THE    LIFE    OF    WICLIF. 

BY  CHARLES   WEBB   LE   BAS,  M.A. 

Professor  in  the  East  India  College,  Herts ;  and  late  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge. 

IN  ONE   VOLUME.      EMBELLISHED   WITH   A  PORTRAIT   OF  WICLIF. 


VOLUMES     IN     PREPARATION. 

THE  CONSISTENCY  OF  THE  WHOLE  SCHEME  OF  REVELA. 
TION  WITH  ITSELF,  AND  WITH  HUMAN  REASON. 

BY  P.  N.  SHUTTLEWORTH,  D.D. 
Warden  of  New  College,  Oxford.    (In  Press.) 

HISTORY    OF   THE    INQUISITION. 

BY  JOSEPH  BLANCO  WHITE,  M.A. 

Of  the  University  of  Oxford. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   PRINCIPAL   COUNCILS. 

BY  J.  H.  NEWMAN,  M.A. 
Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford. 


THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY  (continued). 
THE  LIVES  OF  THE  CONTINENTAL  REFORMERS. 

No.  I.   LIFE  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

BY  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE,  B.D. 
Christian  Advocate  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

THE  LATER  DAYS  OF   THE  JEWISH   POLITY: 

with  a  copious  Introduction  and  Notes  (chiefly  derived  from  the  Tal- 

mudists  and  Rabbinical  Writers).    With  a  view  to  illustrate 

the  Language,  the  Manners,  and  general  Historv 

of  the  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

Bv  THOMAS  MITCHELL,  ESQ.  A.M. 

Late  Fellow  of  Sidney  Sussex  College,  Cambridge. 

HISTORY   OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  IRELAND. 

BY  C.  R.  ELRINGTON,  D.D. 
Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the  University  of  Dublin. 

THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION 

demonstrated  in  an  analytical  Inquiry  into  the  Evidence  on  which  the 
Belief  of  Christianity  has  been  established. 

BY  WILLIAM  ROWE  LYALL,  M.A. 
Archdeacon  of  Colchester,  arid  RectojyfFairstead  and  Weeley  in  Essex. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMElTRELIGION  IN  FRANCE, 

BY  EDWARD  SMKDLEY,  M.A. 
Late  Fellow  of  Sidney  Sussex  College,  Cambridge. 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  EASTERN  MANNERS,  SCRIPTURAL 

PHRASEOLOGY,  &c. 

BY  SAMUEL  LEK,  B.D.  F.R.S.  M.R.A.S. 

Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

HISTORY   OF   SECTS. 

BY  F.  E.  THOMPSON,  M.A. 
Perpetual  Curate  of  Brentford. 

SKETCH    OF   THE    HISTORY    OF    LITURGIES: 

comprising  a  Particular  Account  of  the  LITURGY  of  the  CHURCH  of 

ENGLAND. 

BY  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE,  B.D. 
Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge 

HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH   IN   SCOTLAND, 

BY  MICHAEL  RUSSELL,  LL.D. 
Author  of  the  "  Connexion  of  Sacred  and  Profane  History, 

THE    LIFE    OF   G  R  O  T  I  U  S. 

BY  JAMES  NICHOLS,  F.S.A. 
Author  of  "  Arminianjsjn  and  CalvinisT  compared," 


THE  publishers  of  the  Family  Library,  anxious  to  obtain 
and  to  deserve  the  favourable  opinion  of  the  public,  with 
pleasure  embrace  the  present  opportunity  to  express  their 
warm  and  sincere  thanks  for  the  liberal  patronage  which  has 
been  bestowed  upon  their  undertaking,  and  their  determina- 
tion to  do  all  that  lies  in  their  power  to  merit  its  continu- 
ance. For  some  time  previous  to  the  commencement  of  the 
Family  Library,  they  had  entertained  thoughts  and  wishes 
of  reducing  the  quantity  of  merely  fictitious  writings,  which 
the  reading  public  had  made  it  their  interest  to  issue  from 
their  press  ;  and  they  were  conscious  that  this  could  only 
be  done  by  substituting  for  them  works  that  should  be  equally 
entertaining  and  more  instructive.  The  difficulty  was  to 
find  an  adequate  supply  of  books  possessing  these  requisites. 
At  this  time  the  attention  of  English  philanthropists  and 
authors  was  strongly  turned  to  the  general  dissemination  of 
useful  knowledge  by  means  of  popular  abridgments,  conve- 
nient in  form,  afforded  at  low  prices,  and  as  much  as  possi- 
ble simplified  in  style,  so  as  to  be  accessible  as  well  to  the 
means  as  to  the  comprehension  of  "  the  people,"  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  educated  and  the  wealthy.  The  result  has 
been  the  production  of  numerous  collections,  embracing  well 
written  works  treating  of  almost  every  department  of  art  and 
science,  and,  by  their  simplicity,  clearness,  and  entire  freedom 
from  technicality,  exactly  calculated  to  attract  and  compen- 
sate the  attention  of  the  general  reader.  From  these  collec- 
tions, with  additions  and  improvements,  and  such  alterations 
as  were  necessary  to  adapt  the  work  to  the  taste  and  wants 
of  the  American  public,  HARPER'S  FAMILY  LIBRARY  has 
been  composed ;  and  it  is  with  pride  and  pleasure  that  the 
publishers  acknowledge  the  distinguished  favour  with  which 
it  has  been  received.  The  approbation  and  support  that 
have  already  been  bestowed  upon  it  are  greater  than  have 
ever  teen  conferred  upon  any  work  of  a  similar  character 
published  in  the  United  States  ;  and  the  sale  of  every  suc- 
ceeding volume  still  demonstrates  its  continually  increasing 
popularity.  In  several  instances  gentlemen  of  wealth  and 
of  excellent  judgment  have  been  so  much  pleased  with  the 
character  of  the  Library,  that  they  have  purchased  numbers 
of  complete  sets  as  appropriate  and  valuable  gifts  to  tlie 
families  of  their  less  opulent  relatives;  and  others  have* 


FAMILY   LIBRARY. 

unsolicited,  been  active  in  their  endeavours  to  extend  its 
circulation  among  their  friends  and  acquaintances.  With 
these  strong  inducements  to  persevere,  the  publishers  are 
resolved,  to  prosecute  their  undertaking  with  additional  zeal, 
energy,  and  circumspection.  What  has  been  done  they 
desire  their  patrons  to  consider  rather  in  the  light  of  an  ex- 
periment, than  a  specimen  of  what  they  hope  and  intend  to 
accomplish  :  they  freely  and  gratefully  acknowledge  that 
the  circulation  and  popularity  of  the  Family  Library  are  now 
such  as  to  justify  them  in  disregarding  expense,  and  to 
demand  from  them  every  care  and  every  exertion.  It  snail 
be  their  study  to  make  such  arrangements  as  shall  warrant 
them  in  assuring  the  friends  and  patrons  of  the  Library  that 
the  forthcoming  volumes,  instead  of  decreasing  in  interest 
and  value,  will  be  found  still  more  deserving  of  the  support 
and  approbation  of  the  public  than  those  which  have  pre- 
ceded them. 

In  order  to  render  it  thus  meritorious,  the  proprietors 
intend  incorporating  in  it  hereafter,  selections  of  the  best 
productions  from  the  various  other  Libraries  and  Miscella- 
nies now  publishing  in  Europe.  Several  well-known  au- 
thors have  been  engaged  to  prepare  for  it  also  works  of  an 
American  character;  and  the  Family  Library,  when  com- 
pleted, will  include,  a  volume  on  every  useful  and  interesting 
subject  not  embraced  in  the  other  "  Libraries"  now  prepar- 
ing by  the  same  publishers.  The  entire  series  will  be  the 
production  of  authors  of  eminence,  who  have  acquired  ce- 
lebrity by  their  literary  labours,  and  whose  names,  as  they 
appear  in  succession,  will  afford  the  surest  guarantee  for  the 
satisfactory  manner  hi  which  the  subjects  will  be  treated. 

With  these  arrangements,  the  publishers  flatter  themselves 
that  they  will  be  able  to  offer  to  the  American  public  a  work 
of  unparalleled  merit  and  cheapness,  forming  a  body  of  litera- 
ture which  will  obtain  the  praise  of  having  instructed  many, 
and  amused  all ;  and,  above  every  other  species  of  eulogy, 
of  being  fit  to  be  introduced  to  the  domestic  circle  without 
reserve  or  exception, 

THE  DRAMATIC  SERIES  of  the  Family  Library  will  consist 
principally  of  the  works  of  those  Dramatists  who  flourished 
contemporaneously  with  Shakspeare,  in  which  all  such 
passages  as  are  inconsistent  with  modern  delicacy  will  be 
omitted.  The  number  of  volumes  will  be  limited,  and  they 
will  be  bound  and  numbered  in  such  a  manner  as  to  render  it 
not  essentially  necessary  to  obtain  -them  to  complete  a  set  of 
the  Family  Library. 


.TYl 


ID 


Harper's  Stereotype  Edition. 


THE 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF. 


CHARLES  WEBB   LE  BAS,  M.A. 


PROFESSOR  IN  THE 

OF 


PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  J.  &  J.  HARPER, 

NO.  82   CLIFF-STREET, 

AND    SOLD    BY   THE    PRINCIPAL    BOOKSELLERS    THROUGHOUT 
THE    UNITED    STATES. 

1832. 


LH 


PREFACE. 


THE  object  of  the  following  work  is  to  pro- 
duce, within  a  reasonable  compass,  the  sub- 
stance of  the  information  which  has  been 
preserved  to  us,  relative  to  a  very  extraor- 
dinary man ;  a  man  whose  strength  of  char- 
acter, doubtless,  made  an  impression,  on  the 
mind  of  his  country,  which  has  never  been 
effaced.  The  notice  of  him  by  Fox  has  been 
compared  to  a  piece  of  quaint  and  fantastic 
Mosaic.  Like  the  other  writings  of  the  mar- 
tyrologist,  it  affects  us  in  something  of  the 
same  manner,  as  the  portraitures  and  groups 
on  the  "  storied  window"  of  one  of  our  cathe- 
drals. We  retire  from  the  contemplation  of  it 
with  certain  feelings  of  veneration  and  delight, 
which  a  more  finished  and  artificial  master- 
piece might,  possibly,  fail  to  inspire.  In  this 
instance,  however,  his  work  is  far  too  indis- 
tinct and  imperfect  to  satisfy  the  taste,  or  the 


XVi  PREFACE. 

understanding,  of  an  inquiring1  age.  It  is,  be- 
sides, remarkable  for  one  glaring  omission.  It 
leaves  wholly  unnoticed  the  great  and  immortal 
achievement  of  Wiclif — his  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  English. 

The  life  of  our  Reformer  by  Mr.  Lewis  did 
much  towards  the  supply  of  former  deficiencies. 
It  is  a  laborious,  and,  upon  the  whole,  a  faith- 
ful compilation;  but  it  possesses  but  feeble 
attractions  for  the  general  reader.  The  very 
circumstance  which  renders  it  valuable  as  a 
repertory,  will,  probably,  make  it  somewhat 
repulsive  to  those,  who  prefer  a  fabric  carefully 
wrought  up,  to  a  collection  of  raw  materials. 
It  is  loaded  with  copious  extracts  from  the 
writings  of  Wiclif;  which,  though  they  un- 
doubtedly strengthen  its  authority,  have,  never- 
theless, the  effect  of  interrupting  the  narrative, 
and  of  burdening  the  memory  and  the  atten- 
tion of  the  reader. 

The  most  recent  of  Wiclif 's  biographers  i3 
Mr.  Vaughan:  and  to  the  labours  of  this 
gentleman  I  have  great  obligations  to  acknow- 
ledge. He  appears  to  have  prepared  himself 
for  his  task  by  a  more  complete  and  scrupulous 


PREFACE.  XVii 

examination  of  all  the  extant  writings  of  Wic- 
lif, than  has,  probably,  ever  been  undertaken 
before.  The  apology  for  Wiclif,  compiled  by 
Dr.  James,  upwards  of  two  centuries  ago,  was, 
principally,  the  result  of  a  careful  search  into 
such  of  the  Wiclif  manuscripts  as  could  be 
found  in  the  Bodleian  library.  Even  Mr. 
Lewis  regrets  that  he  was  without  opportu- 
nities or  facilities  for  acquiring  a  perfect  ac- 
quaintance with  the  works  of  the  Reformer. 
But  there  seems  to  be  no  repository  of  ancient 
literature  in  the  empire,  which  has  escaped  the 
industry  of  Mr.  Yaughan.  In  some  respects,  I 
have,  accordingly,  found  his  work  a  most  in- 
valuable guide ;  for  his  diligence  has  enabled 
him  to  ascertain  the  date  of  many  of  Wiclif  s 
performances,  with  an  approach  to  precision 
which  had  never  before  been  attained ;  and, 
thus,  to  trace  out,  with  greater  success  than 
any  former  writer,  the  progress  and  develope- 
ment  of  the  Reformer's  convictions. 

I  have  further  to  declare  myself  deeply  in- 
debted to  the  liberality  of  Mr.  Yaughan  and  his 
publishers,  for  their  kind  and  ready  permission 
to  print,  from  his  work,  the  catalogue  of  Wic- 


PREFACE. 

lif s  writings,  which  forms  the  concluding 
chapter  of  this  volume.  It  is,  unquestionably, 
the  most  complete  account  of  his  works  which 
has  ever  yet  been  laid  before  the  public. 

It  has  been  thought  advisable  to  prefix  to 
this  volume  two  introductory  chapters,  exhibit^ 
ing  a  brief  view  of  Christianity, — in  Europe, 
generally,  and  in  this  country  more  particu- 
larly,— up  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  cenr 
tury  ;  the  period  at  which  the  name  of  Wicr 
lif  began  to  be  celebrated.  Two  supplement 
tary  chapters  are,  also,  added  at  the  end,  con- 
taining a  succinct  notice  of  the  exertions  of 
his  followers,  and  the  fate  of  his  doctrines,  in 
the  interval  between  his  death,  and  the  Re-r 
formation  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  public  will  be  gratified  to  learn,  that 
the  University  of  Oxford  is  about  to  publish 
Wiclif 's  Version  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and 
that  the  Rev.  J.  Forshall,  and  F.  Madden, 
Esq.,  both  Librarians  of  the  British  Museum, 
are  preparing  the  same  for  the  Clarendon  Press. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

General  View  of  the  gradual  corruption  of  Christianity,  to  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century 25 

CHAPTER  II. 

^iew  of  Christianity  in  England,  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
.century 63 

CHAPTER  IH. 

1324—1367. 

»Birth  of  Wiclif— Wiclif  admitted  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford— Re- 
moves to  Merton  College — Acquires  the  title  of  Evangelic  Doctor 
— His  mastery  in  the  scholastic  learning — His  tract  on  the  Last 
Age  of  the  Church,  occasioned  by  the  Plague  of  1348 — He  com- 
mences his  attacks  on  the  Mendicant  Orders — Notice  of  the  first 
institution  of  the  Mendicants — Their  efficacy  on  their  first  Estab- 
lishment— Their  enormous  increase — Their  rapacity  and  turbu- 
lence— Their  introduction  into  England  in  1221 — Its  bad  effects — 
Richard  Fitzralph's  opposition  to  them,  followed  up  by  Wiclif-— 
The  sum  of  Wiclif 's  objection  to  them  contained  in  a  tract  of  his. 
published  twenty  years  later — Letters  of  Fraternity  —  Oxford 
Statute  in  restraint  of  the  Mendicants — Interference  of  Parliament 
— Wiclif  presented  to  the  Rectory  of  Fillingham,  which  he  ex- 
changes afterwards  for  that  of  Lutgershall — Promoted  to  the 
Wardenship  of  Baliol  College,  which  he  resigns  for  the  Headship 
of  Canterbury  Hall,  founded  by  Archbishop  felep — His  appoint- 
ment pronounced  void  by  Archbishop  Langham — Wiclif  appeals 
to  the  Pope,  who  ultimately  ratifies  Langham's  decree — The 
Pope's  decision  confirmed  by  the  Crown  —  Wiclif  vindicated 
against  the  suspicion  of  being  impelled  by  resentment  to  hostilities 
against  the  Papacy — The  Pope  revives  his  claim  of  homage  and 
tribute  from  England — Edward  III.  lays  the  demand  before  Par- 
liament, who  resolve  that  it  ought  to  be  resisted — Wiclif  chal- 
lenged to  defend  the  Resolution  of  Parliament— His  reply  to  the 
challenge 99 


XX  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1367—1377. 

PAGE 

Petition  of  Parliament  that  Ecclesiastics  should  not  hold  Offices  of 
State— Answer  of  the  King— Probable  effect  ofWiclifs  writings 
and  opinions  respecting  this  question — His  sentiments  on  the  em- 
ployment of  the  Clergy  in  secular  offices — He  becomes  a  Doctor 
of  Divinity,  and  is  raised  to  the  Divinity  Chair  at  Oxford — His 
Exposition  of  the  Decalogue — Notice  of  his  "Pore  Caitiff" — 
Notice  of  the  struggles  of  this  Country  against  Papal  exaction — 
Papal  Provisions— Statute  of  Provisory  and  01  Premunire— 
Wiclif  sent  as  Ambassador  to  the  Pope— Presented  to  the  Prebend 
of  Aust  and  the  Rectory  of  Lutter worth — Remonstrance  of  the 
"  Good  Parliament"  against  the  Extortions  of  the  Pope — Wiclif 
summoned  to  appear  before  the  Convocation  at  St.  Paul's — He  is 
protected  by  Jonn  of  Gaunt— His  appearance  at  St.  Paul's — The 
tumultuous  scene  which  followed — Death  of  Edward  III.,  and  ac- 
cession of  Richard  II.  —  Further  complaints  of  the  Parliament 
against  the  Pope— Question,  '-wlu'tlu-r  the  treasure  of  the  king- 
dom misrht  not  be  detained,  although  required  by  the  Pope,"  re- 
ferred to  Wiclif— His  answer 133 

CHAPTER  V. 
1377—1379. 

Bulls  issued  by  the  Pone  against  Wiclif— Coldly  received  at  Oxford 
— Wiclif  appears  at  Lambeth  before  the  Papal  delegates — Violence 
of  the  Londoners— Message  from  the  Queen  Dowager— Wiclif  s 
written  answers  to  the  charges — He  is  dismissed  with  injunctions 
to  abstain  from  spreading  his  doctrines — His  conduct  on  this  occa- 
sion considered — His  reply  to  the  mixtus  theologus — His  views 
with  regard  to  Church  Property — In  what  sense  he  considered  the 
possessions  of  the  Church  as  Alms — His  dangerous  sickness — He 
is  visited  by  several  of  the  Mendicants,  who  exhort  him  to  re- 
pentance— His  answer 165 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1379—1381. 

Origin  of  the  Papal  Schism— Wiclif  s  "  Schisma  Papae"— His  Trea- 
tise on  the  truth  and  meaning  of  Scripture — His  Postils — Wiclif 
as  a  Parish  Priest — Picture  of  the  Clergy  of  that  age  from  his 
tract,  "  How  the  Office  of  Curate  is  ordained  of  God" — Wiclif  s 
translation  of  the  Scriptures — Notice  of  previous  versions  of  parts 
of  the  Bible— Caedmon— Alfred— .Elfric— The  Ormulum— Sowle- 
hele— Rolle,  the  hermit  of  Hampole— Elucidarium  Bibliorum, 
or  Prologue,  &c.  not  the  \york  of  Wiclif— No  complete  version 
before  Wiclif  s — Question  of  appeal  to  private  judgment — Wiclif  s 
defence  of  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures — His  version  proscribed 
by  the  Church,  but,  nevertheless,  widely  circulated— Insurrection 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

PAGE 

of  the  Peasantry— Causes  assigned  for  it  by  Papal  writers— its  real 
cause,  probably,  the  wretchedness  and  degradation  of  the  pea- 
santry— Possibly  aggravated  by  the  growing  impatience  of  Eccle- 
siastical power — Injustice  of  ascribing  it  to  the  religious  opinions 
,of  Wiclif  and  his  Mowers 186 

CHAPTER  VIL 
1381—1382. 

Wiclif  hitherto  employed  in  exposing  the  corruptions  of  the  Papacy 
— He  now  engages  in  the  Sacramental  Controversy — Notice  of  the 
history  of  this  question — Pascasius  Radbert — Bertram  and  Johan- 
nes Scotus— Berengarius— Transubstantiation  established  by  Inno- 
cent III.— Metaphysical  explanation  of  it  by  the  Mendicants — This 
doctrine  unknown  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church — Probably  intro- 
duced into  England  at  the  Conquest — Wiclif  attacks  the  doctrine  •»• 
from  the  chair  of  theology — His  positions  denounced,  on  pain  of 
excommunication — He  appeals  to  the  King — He  is  desired  by  John 
of  Gaunt  to  abstain  from  the  subject— He  composes  his  Osiiolum 
or  Wicket— Courtney  succeeds  to  the  Primacy— Synod  held  by 
him  at  the  Preaching  Friars'  in  London — The  Assembly  disturbed 
by  an  Earthquake— Address  and  self-possession  of  Courtney — 
Twenty-four  Conclusions,  ascribed  to  Wiclif,  condemned — Mea- 
sures taken  for  the  suppression  of  his  Doctrines — Petition  of  the 
Spiritual  Lords  against  the  Lollards— Royal  Ordinance,  empower- 
ing Sheriffs  to  arrest  and  imprison  the  Preachers  of  false  doctrine 
—It  is  introduced  into  the  Parliament  Roll  without  the  consent  of 
Lords  or  Commons — Further  proceedings  of  the  Primate — Wiclif 
himself  not  yet  summoned  before  the  Archbishop — Possibly  still 
protected  by  the  Duke  of  Lancaster — Wiclif  a  complaint  to  the 
King  and  Parliament— Petition  of  the  Commons  against  the  Ordi- 
nance for  the  suppression  of  erroneous  doctrine — Wiclif  sum- 
moned to  answer  before  the  Convention  at  Oxford— He  is  aban- 
doned by  the  Duke  of  Lancaster — He  maintains  his  opinions — He 
delivers  in  two  Confessions,  one  in  English,  the  other  in  Latin— 
His  English  Confession— His  Latin  Confession— He  is  banished 
from  Oxford— He  retires  to  Lutterworth— He  is  summoned  by  the 
Pope  to  appear  before  him— His  answer 227 

CHAPTER  Vin. 

1382—1384. 

Continued  labours  of  Wiclif  in  his  retirement— Crusade  for  Urban 
VI.  under  the  command  of  Spencer,  Bishop  of  Norwich— Its 
failure— Wiclif 's  "  Objections  to  the  Freres"— He  condemns  the 
Crusade — His  opinions  respecting  the  lawfulness  of  wars — He  con- 
ceives his  life  to  be  in  danger  from  his  enemies — His  death — His 
character — Traditions  respecting  him  at.  Lutterworth — His  prefer- 
ments not  inconsistent  with  his  notions  respecting  clerical  posses- 
sions— Wiclif  not  a  political  churchman — Admirable  for  his  per- 
sonal piety,  as  well  as  for  his  opposition  to  Komish  abuse— His 


XXU  CONTENTS. 

PAOK 

unwearied  energy-Probable  effect  of  the  scholastic  discipline  on  his 
mind  —  Alleged  coarseness  of  his  invectives  —  Comparison  of  Wic- 
lif with  Luther  —  Prevalence  of  Wiclif  's  doctrines  at  Oxford  after 
his  death  —  The  testimonial  of  the  University,  in  honour  of  his 
memory,  in  1406  —  Question  of  its  authenticity  considered  —  Perse- 
cution of  Wiclif's  memory  by  the  Papal  writers  —  Prevalence  of 
his  opinions  in  Bohemia  —  His  remains  disinterred  by  a  decree  of 
the  Council  of  Constance  ......  .  .........  257 

CHAPTER  IX. 

WICLIF'S 


Wiclif's  Views  of  Justification  by  Faith—  Wiclif  charged  by  some 
with  Pelagjanism,  by  others,  more  justly,  with  the  doctrine  of 
Predestination  —  His  Predestinarian  notions  chiefly  confined  to  his 
Scholastic  Writings—  Pilgrimage  and  Image-  worship—  Purgatory 
—Auricular  Confession  and  Papal  Indulgences—  Excommunica- 
tion and  Papal  interdicts—  Papal  power  and  supremacy—  Episco- 
pacy— The  Church—  Church  visible  and  invisible—  The  Sacra- 
ments —  Baptism  —  Confirmation  —  Penance  —  Ordination  —  Matri- 
mony —  The  Eucharist  —  Extreme  unction  —  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy 
—  Fasting  —  Ceremonies  —  Church  Music  —  Judicial  Astrology  —  No- 
tions imputed  to  Wiclif  that  God  must  obey  the  Devil,  and  that 
every  creature  is  God  —  Dominion  founded  on  Grace,  how  under- 
stood and  explained  by  Wiclif—  Scriptural  principles  of  civil  obe- 
dience faithfully  enforced  by  him  —  Wiclif's  opinions  as  to  the 
power  of  the  State  over  Church  Property  —  Wiclif  considers  Church 
Endowments  as  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity  —  Tithes 
represented  by  him  as  Alms  —  Value  of  Wiclif's  services,  as  pre- 
paratory to  the  Reformation  —  Notion  of  the  Reformation,  as  it 
would  probably  have  been  effected  by  him  —  The  belief  prevalent 
in  his  time  that  Satan  was  loosed—  Its  probable  influence  on  his 
views  and  opinions  .................  287 

CHAPTER  X. 

Wiclif's  Poor  Priests—  Wiclif  's  tract,  "Why  Poor  Priests  have  no 
Benefices,"  viz.  1.  Their  dread  of  Simony  —  2.  Their  fear  of  mis- 
spend ing  the  goods  of  poor  men—  3.  That  Priests  are  obliged  to 
preach,  whether  beneficed  or  not  —  John  Astnn—  John  Purney  — 
William  Swinderby—  William  Thorpe—  Nicolas  Hereford—  Philip 
Repinsdon—  Richard  Fleming—  Knighton's  representation  of  Wic- 
lif 's  followers—  The  fanatic  John  Balli,  not  a  Disciple  of  Wiclif— 
The  Insurrection  of  the  Peasantry  falsely  ascribed  to  Wiclif  and 
his  followers  —  Attributed  by  the  Commons  to  the  oppression  of  the 
Peasantry  —  Encouragement  afforded  to  Wiclif  by  the  great  —  Ed- 
ward III.  —  Johanna,  Queen  Dowager  —  John  of  Gaunt  —  Anne, 
Queen  of  Richard  II.  —  Richard  II.  —  Various  Noblemen  and 
Knights—  Lord  Cobhani  ...............  323 


CONTENTS.  XX1H 

CHAPTER  XI. 

PAGE 

Proceedings  against  the  Wiclifites— Petition  to  Parliament  on  the 
part  of  the  Lollards — Turbulence  of  the  Lollards — King  Richard  II. 
requested  to  return  from  Ireland  to  the  Succour  of  the  Church — 
He  returns  accordingly,  and  menaces  the  patrons  of  Lollardism — 
Letter  of  Pope  Boniface  IX. — Certain  positions  of  Wiclif  con- 
demned at  Oxford — Statute  de  Heretico  Comburendo — William 
Sautr£,  the  first  victim  of  this  law — Proceedings  of  Archbishop 
Arundel — Continued  violence  of  the  Lollards — Law,  compelling 
all  persons  in  Civil  office  to  take  an  oath  against  Lollardism — In- 
quisitorial Constitution  of  Archbishop  Chicheley — Effect  of  these 
severities — Bishop  Pecock  writes  against  the  Lollards — He  defends 
the  Bishops — His  "  Represser" — His  "  Treatise  of  Faith" — He  cen- 
sures the  preaching  of  the  Mendicants — He  maintains  the  suffi- 
ciency of  the  Scriptures,  and  questions  the  prudence  of  relying  on 
the  infallibility  of  the  Church— For  these  opinions  he  is  forbidden 
the  King's  presence,  and  expelled  from  the  House  of  Lords— He  is 
convened  before  the  Archbishop  for  heresy — Abjures — Is  impri- 
soned for  life  in  Thorney  Abbey — Persecution  of  the  Lollards  re- 
newed under  Henry  VII. — Martyrdom  of  Joanna  Baughton — Mar- 
tyrdom of  Tylsworth — Bishop  Nix — Inhumanity  towards  those 
who  abjured — These  cruelties  eventually  fatal  to  the  Papacy  in 
England 359 

CHAPTER  XH. 

The  Writings  of  Wiclif. 382 

APPENDIX 393 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

INTRODUCTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

General  View  of  the  gradual  corruption  of  Christianity,  to  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

IT  has  been  remarked  that  Christianity  is  a  jewel  of 
inestimable  and  unchangeable  value ;  but  mat  it  is 
grotesquely  or  beautifully  set,  according  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  public  taste,  or  feeling,  or  knowledge, 
at  different  periods  of  the  world,  and  in  different 
states  of  society.  It  is  one  melancholy  office  of  ec- 
clesiastical history,  to  exhibit  the  fantastic  varieties 
displayed  by  human  passion,  and  human  interest,  in 
the  enchasing  and  the  use  of  this  glorious  gem :  and 
nothing  can  well  be  more  mournful  than  the  specta- 
cle which  it  frequently  presents  to  the  view  of  those, 
who  can  be  content  to  look  upon  the  mere  surface  of 
things,  and  who  gladly  spare  themselves  the  pain  of 
a  laborious  search  into  the  ways  of  Providence,  or 
the  hidden  working  of  the  human  heart.  Persons  of 
this  description  will,  probably,  be  tempted  to  moralize 
upon  the  scenes  which  pass  in  review  before  them,  in 
the  following  strain : — A  pearl  of  ineffable  price,  they 
will  say,  has  been  delivered  into  the  custody  of  man 
by  the  Eternal  Son  of  God  himself;  given  them, 
not  only  to  be  their  chiefest  pride  and  joy,  but  to 
be  as  the  very  talisman  of  their  peace  and  safety ; 
their  symbol  of  life  and  victory.  And  how  did  they 
dispose  of  the  unspeakable  gift,  thus  solemnly  and 
3 


26  LITE   OF  WICLIF. 

awfully  committed  to  their  keeping  ?  They  encircled 
it  with  worldly  vanities  and  sublunary  toys  !  In  the 
first  place,  the  wisdom  of  the  wise  was  speedily  at 
work  upon  it:  and  its  celestial  brightness  was 
straightway  surrounded  with  the  feeble  and  unsteady 
glitter  of  earth-born  philosophy.  So  that  the  light 
which  first  blazed  from  the  breast-plate  of  our  great 
High  Priest,  was,  in  time,  dispersed  and  broken  amid 
the  glare  of  unhallowed  fires.  And  then  came  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the 
pride  of  life,  and  dared  to  lay  a  sacrilegious  hand  on 
this  elect  and  costly  stone,  and  to  lift  it  to  the  brow  of 
secular  voluptuousness  and  frivolity ;  there  to  waste 
its  heavenly  splendours,  in  the  midst  of  the  gauds 
and  braveries,  wherewith  our  degenerate  nature  is 
fain  to  disguise  its  miserable  poverty.  At  last,  as  it 
were,  to  crown  the  audacious  abuse,  Ambition  seized 
upon  it,  and  fixed  it  in  her  diadem.  From  that  front, 
where  righteousness  unto  the  Lord  should  alone  have 
been  written,  an  ominous  and  angry  splendour  was, 
for  ages,  seen  to  issue,  more  like  a  consuming  fire 
than  the  flame  of  celestial  truth.  The  inestimable 
diamond  had  been  set  in  earthly  gold.  It  shone  in 
the  midst  of  gems  which  had  been  dug  up  by  the 
spirit  of  Mammon ;  and  thus  it  gave  to  the  attributes 
of  wordly  pomp  and  power,  an  aspect  of  unearthly 
mystery  and  terror,  which  overpowered  the  flesh  and 
heart  of  all  who  looked  upon  it. 

Such  are  the  thoughts  which  may  naturally  be  ex- 
pected to  rush  into  the  mind  of  one,  who  should  ex- 
pect of  the  Christian  revelation,  that  it  would  be  like 
the  word  of  God,  when  he  said,  Let  there  be  light,  and 
there  was  light,  and  that,  when  the  command  went 
forth,  the  light  should,  at  once,  be  divided  from  the 
darkness.  It  is,  indeed,  but  a  shallow  philosophy, 
which  could  tempt  any  man  to  imagine,  that  the  ope- 
rations of  the  Deity  upon  the  moral  chaos  of  this 
world,  must  needs  resemble  those  of  the  Spirit,  which 
once  brooded  over  the  confusion  of  its  material  ele- 


INTRODUCTION.  27 

ments.  The  notion,  however,  is  one  which  may, 
perhaps,  be  pardonably  enough  suggested  by  a  high 
and  reverent  estimate  of  God's  omnipotence,  and  by 
a  feeling  of  pious  impatience  for  the  speedy  consum- 
mation of  his  gracious  designs :  and,  for  the  persons 
who  speculate  upon  the  matter  in  this  temper,  the 
proper  treatment  is,  by  no  means  to  disguise  the 
most  discouraging  phenomena  which  the  case  pre- 
sents to  us  ;  but,  after  a  candid  and  courageous  state- 
ment of  them,  to  recall  their  thoughts  to  other  con- 
siderations,— to  lay  before  them  circumstances  which 
may  satisfy  them,  that  God  is  not  slack  concerning 
his  promises,  as  men  count  slackness, — to  remind  the,m 
that  when  we  are  meditating  on  the  history  of  his 
Church,  we  are  meditating  on  the  dealings  of  One 
with  whom  a  thousand  years  are  but  as  a  single  day. 
Conformably  with  this  view,  let  us,  first,  briefly  sur- 
vey the  progress  of  that  corruption  which  saddens 
the  hearts  of  those,  whose  eyes  are  failing  with  de- 
sire for  the  coming  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom. 

The  first  danger  which  beset  the  Gospel  was,  of 
course,  from  the  spirit  of  Paganism.  Both  the  schools 
of  philosophy,  and  the  haunts  of  vulgar  superstition, 
were  pervaded  by  elements,  at  mortal  variance  with 
the  simple  essence  of  Christianity.  From  the  wis- 
dom of  the  heathen  world  the  new  religion  had,  ac- 
cordingly, to  encounter  either  the  peril  of  fierce  op- 
position,* or  the  still  more  dangerous  offer  of  coali- 

*  The  oracles  of  that  wisdom  which  arrayed  itself  against  the  Gospel, 
were  frequently  as  obscure,  as  its  hostility  was  vehement  and  rancorous. 
The  following  words  (for  they  are  only  words)  of  Porphyry,  the  bitter- 
est enemy  to  Christianity,  may  fitly  enough  be  recommended  to  those  who 
complain  of  the  mysterious  difficulties  of  revelation.  "  God,  intellect, 
a/id  soul,  are  each  of  them  every  where,  because  no  where.  But  God  is 
every  where,  and,  at  the  same  time,  in  no  place  of  any  being  posterior 
to  his  nature :  but  he  is  only  such  as  he  is,  and  such  as  he  willed  himself 
to  be.  But  intellect  is,  indeed,  in  the  Deity,  yet  every  where,  and  in  no 
place  of  his  subordinate  essences.  And  soul  is  in  intellect,  and  in  the 
Deity,  every  where,  and  no  where,  with  respect  to  body.  But  body  ex- 
ists in  soul,  and  in  intellect,  and  in  God.  And  though  all  beings  and  non^ 
entities  proceed  from,  and  exist  in  the  Deity,  yet  he  is  neither  entities,  or 
lion-entities,  nor  has  any  subsistence  in  them,  For  if  he  was  alone 


28  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

tion  and  alliance.  If  the  philosophy  of  the  age  were 
unequal  to  a  conflict  with  the  truth  of  God,  she 
might,  at  least,  endeavour  to  hold  divided  empire 
with  the  truth ;  and,  with  this  view,  would  naturally 
be  induced  to  stretch  forth  to  her  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship.  The  result  of  this  was,  that  the  faith  of 
Christ  was  gradually  transformed  into  the  likeness 
of  a  human  science,  wherein  the  intellect  of  man 
might  boldly  and  freely  take  its  pastime.  And  if,  in 
those  days,  the  state  of  the  world  had  been  shadowed 
forth,  in  mysterious  vision,  to  the  eye  of  seer  or  pro- 
phet, we  may  easily  imagine  the  spectacle  that  would 
have  been  revealed  unto  him.  He  would  have  seen 
the  form  of  Divine  mercy  pouring  out  upon  the  earth 
a  sovereign  and  precious  balm  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations;  and  the  instant,  that  it  fell,  he  would  behold 
the  chaos  of  rebellious  ingredients  below,  falling  at 
once  into  wild  insurrection:  and  from  that  fer- 
menting commotion,  there  would  seem  to  rise  up  a 
swarm  of  fantastic  and  artificial  shapes,  darkening 
the  air  by  their  multitude,  as  with  an  Egyptian 
plague.  The  endless  and  multiform  brood  of  here- 
sies, engendered  in  the  earlier  centuries  of  the 
Church,  were,  in  truth,  no  other  than  the  monstrous 
produce  of  all  the  philosophical  and  religious  systems 
in  the  world,  thrown  into  prodigious  combinations, 
by  the  infusion  of  one  new  ingredient  more  power- 
ful than  them  all.  And,  even  when  the  turbulence 
of  that  conflict  had,  in  some  degree,  subsided,  peace 
still  appeared  to  be  as  remote  as  ever  from  the  Chris- 
tian world.  The  spirit  of  discord  had  been  let  loose, 
and  it  entered  into  Christian  theology,  which,  under 
that  unhallowed  possession,  frequently  exhibited  the 

every  where,  he  would,  indeed,  be  all  things,  and  in  all.  But  because  he 
is,  likewise,  no  where,  all  things  are  produced  by  him  :  so  that  they  sub- 
sist in  him  because  he  is  every  where,  but  are  different  from  him,  because 
he  is  no  where.  Thus,  also,  intellect  being  every  where  and  no  where, 
is  the  cause  of  souls,  &c.  <fcc.  <fcc."  This  passage  is  translated  from 


Porphyry,  by  the  Platouist,  Mr.  Taylor,  and  is  cited  by  Turner,  Hist. 
Eng.  p.  iv.  c.  1.  p.  328. 


INTRODUCTION.  29 

agitation  and  contortion  of  an  energumen  •  and,  in 
its  paroxysms,  it  gave  utterance  to  great  swelling 
words  of  vanity,  concerning  the  deep  and  inscrutable 
things  of  God.  The  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation, — 
themes  the  most  awful  and  stupendous  that  can  en- 
gage the  mind  of  man, — were  tossed  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  from  pen  to  pen,  as  if  they  had  heen 
flung  from  heaven  to  earth,  merely  to  exercise  the 
wit  of  mortals,  and  to  inflate  their  arrogance,  and  to 
kindle  their  passions — instead  of  bringing  down  their 
high  thoughts  into  captivity  to  the  obedience  of 
Christ. 

But,  if  the  philosophy  and  vain  deceit  of  Paganism 
were  injurious  to  the  simplicity  which  is  in  Christ, 
still  more  fatally  infectious  were  the  seductions  of  its 
gay  ritual  and  imaginative  mythology.  With  these 
elements  of  corruption  Christianity  was  every  where 
surrounded.  It  was  in  perpetual  contact  with  things 
that  savoured  of  a  licentious  world.  The  genius  of 
Heathenism  was  incessantly  at  work  to  convert  the 
religion  of  the  Saviour  to  its  own  likeness :  and  we 
all  know  how  calamitous  was  its  ultimate  success. 
If  an  Apostle  had  revisited  the  earth  at  the  end  of 
four  or  five  centuries  from  the  period  of  his  ministry, 
and  had  looked  at  nothing  but  the  outward  and  visi- 
ble form  of  the  Christian  Church,  he  mi^ht  have  been 
tempted  to  fear,  that  the  truth  for  which  he  had  la- 
boured and  bled,  had  been  wholly  transformed  into  a 
gorgeous  spectacle,  a  sort  of  mystic  pageantry, — its 
painful  and  laborious  Evangelists  into  pompous  ac- 
tors— its  places  of  worship  into  splendid  theatres. 
The  change  which  actually  had  taken  place,  may  be 
vividly  imagined  to  our  thoughts  by  the  remark,  that, 
in  primitive  and  apostolic  times,  the  chalices  were  of 
wood,  and  the  ministers  of  gold :  but  that  in  the  days 
of  the  Church's  degeneracy,  she  was  content  with 
golden  chalices  and  wooden  priests  !  This,  probably, 
is  one  of  those  complaints,  in  which  truth  has  been 
partially  sacrificed  to  the  point  and  vigour  of  the 


30  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

saying.  But,  after  all  reasonable  allowance  for  ex- 
aggeration, it  will  still  remain  unquestionable,"  that 
the  clergy  had  grievously  declined  from  their  first 
works,  and  had  begun  to  emulate,  at  least  in  their  ex- 
ternal appearance,  the  superb  and  costly  follies  of  the 
world  around  them.  That  the  public  service  of  God 
should  be  honoured  by  all  sober  and  decent  solemni- 
ty, is  never  questioned  but  by  the  vulgarest  spirit  of 
fanaticism;  and  we  may  well  believe  that  it  was  a 
fervid  zeal  for  the  glory  of  His  name,  which  origin- 
ally sought  to  render  the  Christian  worship  honoura- 
ble in  the  sight  of  the  heathen.  At  last,  however, 
the  clergy,  in  the  splendour  of  their  apparel,  may  be 
said  to  have  well  nigh  beggared  the  pomp  of  "  Aaron's 
wardrobe,  and  the  Flamen's  vestry."  Their  official 
raiment  blazed  with  gold  and  purple,  and  needlework 
of  divers  colours.  Almost  every  object  in  the  crea- 
tion was  pourtrayed  upon  their  garments.  The  more 
devout  among  mem,  indeed,  carried  scriptural  his- 
tories emblazoned  on  their  backs ;  but,  even  so,  their 
appearance  has  been  compared  to  that  of  painted 
walls.  All  this  outward  magnificence  was  thought 
to  correspond  to  the  sacredness,  it  may  almost  be 
said  to  the  divinity,  which  now  began  to  gather  round 
the  sacerdotal  character;  and  yet  he,  whose  "  lips  of 
gold "  proclaimed  most  lavishly  the  exalted  dignity 
of  the  priesthood,  himself  declares  that,  in  his  days, 
the  life  and  soul  of  piety  had  fled  from  the  scenes  of 
their  holy  ministrations.  "  How  awful,"  he  exclaims, 
"  is  the  picture  of  the  primitive  Church  exhibited  by 
the  Apostle  !  The  Church  then  was  heaven  upon 
earth.  The  Spirit  then  ruled  in  all  things.  He 
moved  the  hearts  of  those  who  presided,  and  filled 
them  with  the  Divinity ;  but  now  we  have  nothing 
left  but  the  shadow  of  these  glorious  things.  The 
Church  now  resembles  a  decayed  matron,  who  has 
nothing  to  exhibit  but  the  symbols  and  indications  of 
her  former  wealth  ;  the  cabinets  and  the  caskets  that 
contained  her  jewels,  and  her  gold,  and  her  precious 


INTRODUCTION.  31 

things.  Not  only  have  the  miraculous  gifts  been 
withdrawn  from  ner,  but  virtue  and  devotion  have 
fled  from  the  sanctuary.  In  former  days  every  house 
was  a  church ;  but  now  the  church  is  no  better  than 
a  house  :  nay,  many  a  private  house  exhibits  a  scene 
of  order  and  peace  which  is  a  sore  rebuke  to  our 
places  of  solemn  assembly.  The  house  of  God  is 
now  a  scene  of  tumult  and  confusion,  which  inces- 
santly reminds  us  of  the  place  of  traffic  and  exchange. 
The  laughter  and  uproar  is  such  as  we  hear  at  the 
public  baths  and  open  market-places,  We  seem  to 
forget  that  the  church  is  not  a  place  for  idle  concourse 
or  worthless  recreation,  not  for  worldly  business  or 
employment ;  but  that  it  is  the  haunt  of  angels,  the 
realm  of  the  Almighty  himself, — another  heaven. 

The  temple  is  now  more  like  a  theatre  than  a 

place  of  religious  service  and  devotion.  It  shows 
quite  as  prodigal  a  display  of  the  vanities  and  seductive 
artifices  of  dress  and  decoration.  It  is  chosen  as  the 
most  commodious  spot  for  licentious  intrigues.  More 
bargains  are  made  there,  than  at  the  tables  of  the 
money-changers.  More  business  is  transacted  there, 
than  at  the  usual  resorts  of  trade  and  commerce.  If 
you  wish  for  the  best  opportunity  of  hearing  or  cir- 
culating slander,  seek  it — not  in  the  usual  places  of 
concourse — but  in  the  church.  If  you  are  curious 
about  private  concerns,  or  political  intelligence,  go 
not  to  the  camp,  or  to  the  courts  of  justice,  or  to  the 
saloons  of  the  physicians :  the  church  is  the  place  in 
which  the  retailers  of  such  matters  are  always  to  be 
found.  In  short,  the  spot  on  which  we  are  now  as- 
sembled is  any  thing  but  a  church.  Are  these  abuses 
and  abominations  to  be  endured  ?" — And  yet,  at  the 
very  time  when  the  spiritual  degeneracy  called  forth 
these  complaints  and  denunciations,  the  ecclesiastical 
rites  and  offices  were  supposed  to  possess  an  almost 
supernatural  solemnity  and  power.  "  Look,"  says 
the  golden  preacher  again,  "  look  at  that  awful  table. 
Recollect  why  it  is  placed  there.  The  very  sight  of 


32  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

a  king's  throne  causes  us  to  rise  and  do  it  reverence. 
Tremble  then  at  the  spectacle  before  you.  Lift  up 
your  heart  to  heaven  before  the  moment  arrives 
which  shall  draw  aside  the  veil  that  covers  those 
venerable  mysteries,  and  disclose  a  band  of  angels 
advancing  before  the  presence  of  their  King.  The 
very  catechumens,  who  have  not  received  initiation, 
can  yet  understand  that,  when  a  prophet  or  minister 
of  God  addresses  them,  they  are  in  the  presence  of 
Jehovah  himself,  and  that  their  souls  should  therefore 
be  lifted  up  from  earth.  What !  shall  the  vile  antics, 
and  the  worthless  jest  of  players,  and  mimics,  and 
harlots,  be  honoured  with  breathless  and  unbidden 
silence ;  and  shall  the  message  of  the  Lord  of  heaven 
be  received  with  scorn  ?  When  he  speaks  to  us  of 
things  so  stupendous,  shall  we  put  on  a  hardy  im- 
pudence, which  would  almost  disgrace  the  brutes  ?"* 
In  our  perusal  of  passages  of  this  stamp,  abundant 
allowance  must,  of  course,  be  made  for  the  fervency 
and  indignation  of  the  preacher.  His  object  evi- 
dently is,  to  awaken  the  slumbering  conscience  of 
his  hearers  by  the  terrors  of  his  rebuke,  and  to  shame 
them  into  a  life  more  worthy  of  their  high  and  blessed 
vocation.  Now  this  is  an  office,  in  the  discharge  of 
which,  the  voice  of  an  imaginative  and  zealous  man 
may  sometimes  be  expected  to  sound  like  the  thunder; 
and  there  would  be  neither  charity  nor  wisdom  in 
making  his  language  the  measure,  by  which  the 
Christian  stature  of  a  whole  generation  is  to  be  ascer- 
tained. Nevertheless,  it  is  quite  impossible  that 
words,  like  those  which  have  been  cited,  should  have 
found  utterance  in  any  period,  but  one  of  serious  de- 
cline from  the  purity  of  ancient  days ;  and  they  are 
amply  confirmed  by  the  censures  of  other  writers, 
and  by  the  canons  of  the  Church.  All  this  testimony 
combines  to  show  that,  by  this  time,  the  priesthood 

'  ChrysosL  Horn,  xxxvi.  in  1  Cor.  xiv.  33.  vol.  x.  p.  339—341.  Ed 
Bened.  What  I  have  given  above  is  the  substance  of  the  preacher's  in. 
dignant  declamation. 


INTRODUCTION.  33 

was  gradually  contracting  the  semblance  of  a  world- 
ly profession,  at  least  in  those  parts  of  the  empire 
where  grandeur,  and  wealth,  and  luxury,  were  pre- 
dominant; that  the  genius  of  Paganism,  despairing 
of  an  open  conflict  against  the  Imperial  faith,  was 
spreading  its  own  fantastic  embroidery  over  the  sim- 
ple and  seamless  vesture  of  Christianity;  and,  not 
only  so,  but  was  beginning  to  mix  up  its  palatable 
venom  with  her  sacred  and  living  waters. 

As  nothing  can  be  more  deeply  interesting,  than 
to  watch  Christianity  in  its  state  of  transition  from 
simplicity  to  corruption, — and  as  it  manifestly  was  in 
that  state  in  the  days  of  the  great  Christian  orator, 
whom  we  have  just  heard, — it  will  scarcely  be  consi- 
dered as  an  impertinent  digression,  if  I  venture  to 
solicit  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  another  burst  of 
his  impassioned  eloquence,  evidently  prompted  by 
feelings  of  the  same  kindred  with  those,  which,  in 
after  ages,  rilled  the  world  with  reliques,  and  wearied 
it  with  pilgrimages.  In  his  thirty-second  Homily  on 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  there  is  a  highly-wrought 
encomium  on  the  character  of  St.  Paul.*  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  substance  of  the  most  striking  portion 
of  it.  "  The  voice  of  St.  Paul  was  like  the  cherubim 
of  the  mercy-seat.  Jehovah  rested  on  the  tongue  of 
the  Apostle,  as  he  did  on  the  forms  of  those  celestial 
Virtues.  Its  utterance  soared  to  seraphic  heights; 
for  what  could  the  voice  of  a  seraph  pronounce  more 
sublime  than  the  exclamation.  *  lam  persuaded  that 
neither  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things 
present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor 
any-  other  created  thing,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ. ,'  .  .  .  Would 
I  could  behold  the  dust  that  formed  that  mouth,  by  which 
Christ  spoke  of  such  unutterable  things,  and  by 
which  the  Spirit  delivered  his  wondrous  oracles  to 
the  world.  For  who  shall  tell  the  marvels  which 

•  Ed.  Bened.  vol.  ix.  p.  758, 759, 


34  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

that  mouth  accomplished  ?  It  expelled  daemons — 
absolved  sins — silenced  monarchs — sealed  up  the 
tongues  of  philosophers — brought  over  the  world  to 
God — won  barbarians  to  the  study  of  wisdom — 
changed  the  whole  frame  and  proportion  of  things  on 
earth — and  ordered  at  will  the  things  which  are  in 
heaven,  according  to  the  mighty  power  that  wrought 
within  him.  Would  that  I  could  behold  the  dust  of  that 
heart,  which  might  truly  be  called  the  heart  of  the 
whole  world — the  fountain  of  blessings  without  num- 
ber— the  elemental  principle  of  our  very  life,  (for  the 
spirit  of  life  was  thence  dealt  forth  to  all,  and  was 
divided  to  all  the  members  of  Christ ;)  that  vast  and 
mighty  heart,  which  embraced  whole  cities  and  na- 
tions; which  was  exalted  above  the  heavens,  and 
was  larger  than  the  earth ;  which  was  brighter  than 
the  sun,  and  firmer  than  adamant ;  that  heart  which 
was  the  tablet  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  book  of  hea- 
venly grace. —  Would  I  could  behold  the  dust  of  those 
hands  which  were  galled  with  fetters,  those  hands  by 
the  imposition  of  which  the  Spirit  was  dispensed, 
and  from  which  the  viper  fell  into  the  flame  ;  would 
I  could  see  the  dust  that  formed  those  eyes  which  were 
so  illustriously  blinded,  and  which,  for  the  salvation 
of  the  world,  were  soon  restored  to  light ;  those  eyes 
which  looked  on  earthly  things,  but  saw  them  not, 
and  which  beheld  the  things  that  are  invisible.  Would 
I  could  gaze  upon  the  dust  of  those  feet,  which  made 
the  circuit  of  the  earth,  yet  knew  no  weariness. 
Would  that  I  could  see  the  sepulchre,  where  those  arms 
of  righteousness  and  light  are  now  laid  up ;  those 
limbs  which  are  now  alive,  but  which,  while  he  sur- 
vived, were  dead ;  those  limbs  which  were  crucified 
to  the  world,  and  in  which  Christ  alone  could  be  said 
to  live.  Would  that  I  could  look  upon  the  ruins  of  that 
frame  which  was  the  temple  of  the  Spirit ;  of  that 
body,  which,  to  this  hour,  girds  the  great  city  that 
contains  it,  with  a  defence  more  indestructible  than 
the  strength  of  wall  or  bulwark. — And  would  that 


INTRODUCTION.  35 

we  might  not  think  upon  him  merely  with  veneration 
and  astonishment,  but  fervently  imitate  his  holiness, 
that  we  might  be  worthy  hereafter  to  behold  him, 
and  to  be  made  partakers  of  his  unutterable  glory." 
Surely  the  man  who  could  write  this,  would  willing- 
ly have  gone  a  pilgrimage  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
to  look  upon  the  remains,  which  his  imagination 
and  his  heart  did  all  but  worship.  In  passages  such 
as  this,  we  may  behold,  in  its  highest  and  purest  re- 
gion, the  action  of  that  principle  which,  when  it  de- 
scended among  lower  natures,  engendered  little  but 
absurdity  and  corruption. 

It  is  evident  then,  that  even  at  this  period,  a  pro- 
cess had  commenced,  which  being  unhappily  con- 
tinued through  a  long  course  of  ages,  ended,  for  the 
most  part,  by  "  drawing  down  all  divine  intercourse 
between  God  and  the  human  soul  into  an  exterior  and 
bodily  form,"  till  at  last,  as  it  is  expressed  by  Milton,* 
"  nearly  all  the  inward  parts  of  worship,  which  issue 
from  the  native  strength  of  the  soul,  ran  lavishly  to 
the  upper  skin,  and  there  hardened  into  a  crust  of 
formality."  But  why  should  our  souls  be  cast  down 
by  the  vicissitudes  of  that  stupendous  conflict,  which 
has  been  carried  on,  for  ages,  between  the  depravity 
of  man  and  the  glorious  grace  of  God  ?  Let  us  look 
up  from  the  depth  of  our  dejection,  and  our  eyes  shall 
be  saluted  by  many  a  blessed  beam  of  hope  and  joy, 
bursting  forth  from  the  thickest  gloom  that  shrouds 
the  dispensations  of  the  Almighty.  We,  in  our 
weakness  and  impatience  may,  at  times,  be  tempted 
to  exclaim,  O  that  thou  wouldest  rend  the  heavens,  that 
thouwouldest  come  down,  that  the  mountains  might  flow 
down  at  thy  presence.  And  the  sceptics  and  the  scoff- 
ers may  say  now,  as  they  said  of  old,  let  the  Lord 
make  speed,  and  hasten  his  work  that  we  may  see  it,  and 
let  the  counsel  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  draw  nigh  that 
we  may  know  it.  But  the  eye  of  Faith,  though  the 

*  On  Reformation  in  England. 


6b  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

vision  tarry,  will  patiently  wait  for  it ;  for  the  chariot 
wheels  of  God's  providence  attend  not  on  the  haste 
and  eagerness  of  man.  He  hath  eternity  to  work  in  ; 
and  his  dealings  refuse  all  such  measurement  and 
reckoning,  as  can  he  applied  to  them  by  the  creatures 
of  a  day.  Besides, — can  it  be,  that  any  human  eye 
can  look  upon  the  work  which  had  been  wrought 
upon  the  earth  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the  Church,  and 
yet  fail  to  discern  the  goings  forth  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  ?  Can  the  adversary  himself  deny  that  the  Gos- 
pel had  gone  abroad,  "  in  the  unresistible  might  of 
weakness,"  conquering  and  to  conquer  ?  Within  a 
moderate  space  from  me  day  of  Christ's  ascension,  it 
had  been  preached  to  three  continents,  and  began  to 
fill  with  believers  the  forum  and  the  camp  of  the  Pa- 
gan world.  Three  centuries  had  scarcely  elapsed, 
when  it  had  been  heard  to  the  very  ends  of  the  civil- 
ized globe :  and,  in  little  more  than  four,  the  ancient 
superstitions  had  well  nigh  crumbled  into  dust  before 
it.  And  then,  what  shall  we  say  to  its  moral  tri- 
umphs over  the  passions  and  the  fears  which  hold 
mankind  in  bondage  ?  What  shall  we  say  to  the 
miracles  of  constancy  and  devotion  which  illustrate 
the  primitive  annals  of  the  Church  ?  Can  the  changes 
which  it  wrought,  and  the  victories  which  it  achieved, 
be  paralleled  in  the  history  of  man  ?  The  scorner 
may  point  to  the  lordly  prelates  of  imperial  capitals  ; 
to  Paul  of  Samosata,  to  Damasus  of  Rome,  to 
George  of  Cappadocia.  We  will  turn  our  eyes  to 
the  spiritual  fathers  of  obscure  and  remote  provinces, 
whose  sanctity  and  whose  simplicity  were  as  a  burn- 
ing and  a  shining  light  to  their  people.  The  infidel  and 
the  Sadducee  may  direct  the  finger  of  contempt  to 
the  iniquitous  or  dissolute  lives  of  those,  who  named 
the  name  of  Christ  in  the  midst  of  luxury,  and  splen- 
dour, and  worldliness.  We  seek  for  the  glories  of 
the  Christian  faith  in  scenes  of  domestic  purity  and 
quiet.  The  despisers  will  tell  us  of  the  schisms  and 
the  heresies  which  tore  all  Christendom  to  pieces,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  J7 

verified  at  least  one  prophecy  of  our  Lord,  that  he 
came  not  to  send  peace  on  earth,  but  that  he  came  to 
send  a  sword.  Our  consolation  is  to  be  found  in 
the  belief,  that  God  had  almost  innumerable  faithful 
ones,  who  dwelt  in  serenity  and  peace  below  those  re- 
gions of  turbulence.  The  warfare  of  theology  might 
be  raging,  as  it  were,  round  the  mountain  heights, 
and  the  people  of  the  valleys  might  frequently  hear 
the  sound  thereof,  and  yet  be  unable  to  tell  whence 
it  came  or  Avhither  it  went :  and  we  are  accordingly 
told  that,  amid  the  wildest  tumults  of  controversy, 
the  ears  of  the  populace  were  often  more  innocent 
and  holy  than  the  hearts  of  their  teachers.*  A  more 
unrighteous  perversion  can  scarcely  be  imagined,  than 
to  estimate  the  influences  of  Christianity  by  the 
phases  which  it  wears,  when  examined  through  the 
turbid  atmosphere  of  national  and  political  history. 
No  other  institution  under  heaven  could  endure  so 
iniquitous  a  test.  The  annals  of  the  world,  we  are 
perpetually  told,  exhibit  little  else  than  a  register  of 
lolly  and  of  crime ;  and,  to  our  sight,  the  tragedy 
often  deepens  as  civilization  advances,  as  human  in- 
terests become  more  complicated,  as  human  arts  ad- 
vance towards  maturity,  and  as  governments  expand 
into  activity  and  power.  In  proportion  as  the  race 
of  man  improves,  in  the  same  proportion,  frequently, 
are  his  passions  brought  out  into  bolder  relief.  The 
tale  of  his  absurdities  and  his  atrocities  becomes  more 
fearfully  and  more  distinctly  legible.  As  the  social 
fabric  rises  into  grandeur  and  strength,  the  conflict 
of  principalities  and  powers  becomes  more  tremen- 
dous, and  the  story  of  our  species  more  full  of  ter- 
rific interest.  And  yet,  what  should  we  say  to  one, 
who  persisted  in  affirming  that  governments  are  mere- 
ly agents  of  destruction,  and  that  the  advancement 
of  science  or  of  art  is  nothing  more  than  the  deve- 
lopement  of  principles,  which  tend  to  national  decay 

*  Sanctj'ores  sunt  aures  plebis  quam  forda  eacerdotwn,  are  Uw 

VFords  of  Vincentius  Lirinensis. 


38  LIFE   OF   WICL1F. 

and  dissolution  ?  In  spite  of  all  this  collision  of  ele- 
ments, man  continues  to  derive  transcendent  benefits 
from  the  expansion  of  his  social  energies,  and  the 
growth  of  his  civil  institutions;  although  history 
may  present  to  our  view  little  else  than  the  boiling 
foam  which  is  thrown  up  by  the  fermentation.  And 
why  should  a  different  test  be  applied  to  that  potent 
leaven  which  has  been  mercifully  cast  into  the  mass 
of  our  degenerate  nature  ?  Let  us  look  beneath  the 
surface  ;  let  us  not  weary  ourselves  by  watching  the 
fierce  agitation  of  the  process ;  but,  rather  let  us 
gratefully  fix  our  thoughts  on  the  purity  and  the  re- 
finement which,  in  God's  good  time,  will  assuredly 
be  the  result.4 

In  adverting,  however,  to  the  astonishing  strug- 
gles of  the  preservative  power  of  Christianity,  against 
the  corruptions  of  human  nature,  it  is,  of  course,  need- 
less to  disguise  the  danger  she  incurred  in  the  con- 
flict. So  great  was  that  danger,  that  some  have 
doubted  whether  the  Church  retained  within  herself 
sufficient  strength  and  virtue  to  purge  off  the  "  baser 
fires"  which  were  beginning  to  pollute  and  to  con- 
sume her;  and  whether  a  tempestuous  convulsion 
were  not  absolutely  needed,  to  preserve  within  her 
the  principle  of  health.  The  question  is  one  which 
no  human  wisdom  can  venture  confidently  to  decide. 
It  seems  indeed,  far  from  improbable  that  the  salt 
might,  in  time,  have  utterly  lost  its  savour,  if  some 
violent  agitation  had  not  occurred  to  prevent  it  from 
gradually  sinking  into  the  surrounding  mass  of  im- 
purity. At  all  events,  it  may  easily  be  imagined, 
that  the  discord  and  corruption  which  then  disfigured 
the  Church,  may  have  made  it  needful,  that  the  storms 
and  billows  of  a  tremendous  chastisement  should  pass 
over  her.  But,  however  this  may  be,  at  the  period 
we  are  contemplating^  all  the  mounds  and  barriers 

*  The  reader  who  may  be  desirous  of  seeing  the  force  of  Christianity, 
as  a  progressive  scheme,  powerfully  exhibited,  should  consukMr.  Rost'g 
publication  on  that  subject,  as  Christian  Advocate,  lor  the  year  1829. 


INTRODUCTION.  39 

of  ancient  power  were  actually  giving  way,  and,  at 
last,  the  deluge  burst  from  the  regions  of  the  east  and 
north.  The  fountains  of  the  great  deep  of  human 
population  appeared  to  be  broken  up ;  and  for  a  long 
period,  the  waters  prevailed  with  such  exceeding 
fury,  that,  at  length,  the  whole  fabric  of  the  empire 
was  carried  before  them,  like  a  heap  of  sand,  and 
little  was  left  of  it  but  a  shapeless  pile  of  fragments. 
It  was  well  that  Christianity,  in  those  days,  had  long 
pervaded  and  possessed  nearly  the  whole  mass  of 
civilized  society.  Had  these  tremendous  convul- 
sions occurred  before  its  strength  had  been  consoli- 
dated, they  must,  as  it  would  appear  to  all  human 
judgment,  have  swept  it  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
As  it  was,  nothing  short  of  general  extermination 
could  destroy  it.  It  survived  the  havoc  of  those 
dreadful  visitations  :  but  strange  and  wonderful  were 
the  appearances  with  which  it  emerged  out  of  the 
chaos.  From  the  very  midst  of  the  ruins,  a  porten- 
tous form  was  seen  to  arise,  such  as  the  world  had 
never  looked  upon ;  an  apparition  habited  in  the 
robes  of  priesthood,  and  surrounded  by  attributes  of 
majesty;  holding  in  one  hand  the  rod  of  worldly 
power,  and  in  the  other  the  flaming  sword,  which 
turned  every  way  to  guard  the  citadel  of  spiritual 
dominion.  For  ages  together  did  this  stupendous 
phantom  continue  to  spread  out  before  the  astonished 
gaze  of  mankind,  till  its  feet  seemed  to  rest  upon 
the  earth,  while  its  head  was  towering  among  the 
stars. 

And  where,  it  may  be  asked,  was  the  power  that 
called  up  this  mysterious  shape  of  sovereignty  ?  In 
truth,  the  mighty  enchanters  which  summoned  it 
into  the  realms  of  light,  were  no  other  than  the  cor- 
rupt passions,  and  the  clamorous  necessities  of  man. 
The  passions  of  man  called  aloud  for  indulgence,  his 
calamities  for  succour  and  protection ;  and  both 
these  purposes  could  be  answered  by  nothing  but  an 
empire,  which  should  combine  the  spiritual  with  the 


40  LIFE   OF    WICLIF. 

secular  dominion,  and  bring  the  powers  of  the  world 
into  league  with  the  allurements  and  the  terrors  of 
superstition.  The  Papacy  is  not  to  be  contemplated 
as  a  mighty  scheme  of  imposture  and  despotism,  con- 
structed conformably  to  a  fixed  and  regular  design, 
and  gradually  completed  according  to  a  system,  con- 
veyed from  one  generation  of  deceivers  to  another. 
The  passions  and  the  wants  of  a  licentious  and  semi- 
barbarous  world,  invited  the  master-builders  to  raise 
up  the  fabric  of  spiritual  supremacy ;  while  the  con- 
fusion and  anarchy  of  the  West,  deprived  of  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Imperial  presence,  demanded  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  temporal  dominion.  And  thus  it 
was,  that  the  chambers  of  seduction,  and  the  battle- 
ments of  strength  and  pride,  rose  up  together,  and 
formed  between  them,  a  structure  more  strange, 
more  fantastic,  and,  at  the  same  time,  more  vast  and 
menacing,  than  could  ever  have  been  projected,  in 
the  wildest  mood  of  ambition,  by  the  invention  or 
the  sagacity  of  man. 

Never,  perhaps,  since  the  world  began,  was  there 
a  power,  which  seemed  to  unite  within  itself  so 
many  elements  of  weakness,  as  the  Papacy.  The 
sovereigns  were  usually  aged  men,  when  they  as- 
cended the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  consequently  their 
reigns  were  brief.  Every  pontiff  was  an  insulated 
individual,  united  by  no  ties  of  kindred  to  those  who 
went  before,  or  to  those  who  followed  after.  The 
elective  conclave  was  a  scene  of  eternal  rivalry,  in- 
trigue, and  conflict.  And  yet  did  this  rope  of  sand, 
as  it  must  have  appeared  to  ordinary  eyes,  coalesce 
into  such  a  union  of  strength  and  flexibility,  that  it 
was  able  to  twine  itself  round  the  mightiest  of  man- 
kind, to  bind  kings,  as  it  were,  with  chains,  and 
nobles  with  fetters  of  iron.  The  rod  of  the  arch- 
magician  became  a  serpent,  and  the  serpent  grew 
into  a  voluminous  monster,  which  entangled  and 
crushed  the  monarchs  of  the  forest  in  its  folds.  It 
is  impossible,  according  to  any  scheme  of  merely 


INTRODUCTION,  41 

human  philosophy,  to  account  for  this  example  of 
strength  made  perfect  in  weakness,  otherwise  than, 
by  supposing,  that  the  secret  of  the  papal  force  lay- 
in  the  public  mind  and  will  of  Christian  Europe.  It 
is  altogether  incredible,  that  so  much  feebleness 
should  have  put  forth  such  'prodigies  of  might,  if  it 
had  not  derived  its  main  resources  from  the  exigen- 
cies and  the  defects  of  the  whole  social  system,  dur- 
ing the  period  of  its  predominance.  The  pontifical 
power  and  supremacy  formed,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  uni- 
versal sanctuary  against  the  savage  turbulence  and 
coarse  despotism,  of  the  middle  ages.  It  was,  if 
possible,  a  still  more  alluring  refuge  against  the 
furies  and  the  scorpions  of  an  accusing  conscience. 
It  enslaved  the  judgment,  but  it  gave  a  license  to  the 
passions  :  and  what  tyranny  is  there  to  which  man  will 
not  submit,  if  it  does  but  offer  him  protection  against 
external  violence  and  internal  remorse  ?  if  it  guards 
him  against  lawless  and  brutal  force  from  without, 
and  relieves  him  from  the  horrors  of  a  spiritual  con- 
flict within  ? 

That  the  papal  system  frequently  conferred  the 
blessings  of  protection  on  the  helpless  and  the  lowly, 
in  times  of  frightful  anarchy  and  turbulence,  it  would 
be  most  ungracious  and  absurd  to  question.  It  was 
itself  a  most  gigantic  abuse;  but  then  it  had  the 
merit  of  frequently  controlling  other  abuses  and  enor- 
mities, which  might,  between  them,  have  torn  the 
whole  structure  of  society  in  pieces,  It  was  in  some 
sort,  like  the  rod  of  Aaron,  which  swallowed  up  the 
rods  of  the  enchanters.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the 
truce  of  God,  which  afforded  to  the  inoffensive  and 
the  feeble,  four  nights  out  of  the  seven  in  which  they 
might  sleep  in  peace  ?  Who  does  not  now  perceive, 
that  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  formed  an  august  tribunal, 
which  often  rebuked  and  curbed  the  brutal  rapine, 
and  merciless  oppression,  of  barons  and  of  princes  ? 
It  may,  indeed,  be  no  pleasing  spectacle  to  see  the 
potentates  of  the  earth  at  the  bridle  or  the  stirrup 


42  LIFE   OF    WICLIF. 

of  a  churchman;  or  to  behold  emperors  waiting 
barefoot  at  the  gates  of  his  palace.  But,  although 
our  indignation  may,  even  now,  be  kindled  by  the 
very  recollection  of  those  days,  when  "  the  kings  of 
the  earth  were  of  one  mind,  to  give  their  power  and 
their  strength  unto  the  beast,"  our  emotions  may 
well  be  mitigated  by  the  thought,  that,  in  those 
wretched  times,  the  people  were  eaten  up,  as  it  were 
bread,  by  them  that  called  themselves  me  excellent 
and  the  illustrious  of  the  earth:  and  that  humanly 
speaking,  nothing  less  powerful  than  the  authority 
of  the  vicegerent  of  God,  may  have  been  sufficient 
to  save  the  world  from  the  horrors  and  oppressions 
of  perpetual  barbarism.  Again,  it  is  an  astounding 
thing  to  behold  all  Europe  precipitating  herself  into 
the  East,  and  draining  out  her  life-blood  and  her 
treasure,  at  the  call  of  an  imperious  hierarchy,  on 
the  preaching  of  a  fanatical  monk.  But  then,  it 
should  be  remembered,  that,  according  to  all  human 
calculation,  nothing  but  this  upheaving  of  the  re- 
sources and  energies  of  Christendom,  could  have 
rolled  back  the  flood,  which  the  fury  of  Mohammed 
had  let  loose  upon  the  Eastern  world ;  and  which, 
if  not  arrested,  might  have  swept  religion  and  hu- 
manity from  the  regions  of  the  West. 

All  these  are  considerations,  which  may  reasona- 
bly satisfy  us,  that  the  thoughts  of  God  towards  the 
children  of  men,  were  not  wholly  thoughts  of  evil, 
when  he  permitted  the  mystery  of  iniquity  to  grow 
up  into  such  colossal  grandeur.  We  cannot,  without 
violence  to  our  judgment,  or  our  faith,  shut  out  from 
our  minds  the  notion  of  some  especial  providential 
agency  and  interference,  shaping  and  regulating  the 
growth  and  the  formation  of  this  gigantic  spiritual 
empire.  There,  surely,  is  something  grand  and  aw- 
ful in  the  spectacle  of  a  mental  supremacy,  control- 
ling the.  mutinous  elements  of  society,  during  the 
wildest  periods  of  barbarism,  and  often  potently  in- 
terfering to  prevent  their  rushing  into  ruinous  and 


INTRODUCTION.  43 

exterminating  conflict.  And  then,  too,  it  should 
never  be  forgotten,  that  the  same  power  was,  in  effect, 
the  sole  guardian  of  intelligence,  the  sole  protector 
and  preserver  of  literature,  in  those  days  of  Egyptian 
darkness.  The  man  is  not  to  be  envied,  who  can 
reflect,  without  some  emotions  of  gratitude  on  those 
various  and  noble  foundations  which,  although  they 
may  have  at  last  degenerated  into  haunts  and  hiding- 
places  of  profligacy,  formed,  nevertheless,  the  only 
retreats  of  learning,  civilization,  and  charity,  during 
a  dreary  interval  of  general  ignorance  and  brutality. 
It  would  be  scarcely  too  much  to  affirm  that  the 
papal  Church,  corrupt  as  it  became,  was  no  less  than 
the  Ark,  which  preserved  the  moral  and  spiritual  life 
of  Christendom  from  perishing  in  the  flood,  that  so 
long  overspread  the  face  of  the  earth.  Nay,  the  most 
indignant  Protestantism  will  never  scruple  to  con- 
fess thus  much, — that  foul  as  the  Romish  Church  has 
been  and  is,  it  has  preserved  the  true  Catholic  doc- 
trine, though  under  the  deepest  incrustations  of  error, 
and  has  been  over-ruled  by  God  to  the  purpose  of 
continuing  the  true  Church,  and  the  true  faith,  so 
that  the  gates  of  hell  have  not  wholly  prevailed 
against  them. 

This,  then,  is  the  praise  of  the  Papal  system,  that 
it  has  done  for  the  Christian  world,  what,  according 
to  human  conjecture,  and  under  the  actual  vicissi- 
tudes which  have  befallen  the  world,  scarcely  any 
other  system  could  have  done.  The  miserable  igno- 
rance, corruption,  and  decrepitude  of  the  Greek  and 
Asiatic  Churches,  at  this  day,  are  examples  of  what 
might  have  been  the  fate  of  Christian  Europe,  if  she 
had  been  left  without  a  centre  of  ecclesiastical  union 
and  power.  The  darker  side  of  the  picture  is  well 
known  to  all.  Among  the  wants  of  mankind  may 
be  reckoned  an  appetite  for  deception ;  a  desire,  inhe- 
rent in  our  depraved  nature,  to  bring  to  an  agreement 
the  claims  of  the  Deity,  with  the  indulgence  of  our 
frailties ;  a  wild  impatience  for  the  conveniences  and 


44  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

splendours  of  a  religious  structure,  in  which  the 
luxury  of  delusion  may  be  enjoyed  to  the  full.  And 
most  prodigally  did  the  Romish  Church  minister  to 
this  corrupt  demand.  Ample  and  complete  indeed, 
was  the  apparatus  which  she  provided  for  the  accom- 
modation of  all  the  various  passions  and  propensities 
of  man.  When  the  structure  which  she  raised  had 
reached  its  perfection,  it  "  had  a  chamber  for  every 
natural  faculty  of  the  soul,  and  an  occupation  for 
every  energy  of  the  natural  spirit.  She  there  per- 
mitted every  extreme  of  abstemiousness  and  indul- 
gence, fast  and  revelry ;  melancholy  abstraction  and 
burning  zeal ;  subtle  acuteness  and  popular  discourse ; 
world-renunciation  and  worldly  ambition ;  embracing 
the  arts  and  the  sciences  and  the  stores  of  ancient 
learning ;  adding  antiquity,  and  misrepresentation  of 
all  monuments  of  better  times;  and  covering  care- 
fully, with  a  venerable  veil,  that  only  monument  of 
better  times,  which  was  able  to  expose  the  false 
ministry  of  the  infinite  superstition  !"* 

It  is  needless  here  to  "  uncover  the  cup  of  those 
deadly  and  ugly  abominations,  wherewith  this  Jero- 
boam, of  whom  we  speak,  hath  made  the  earth  so 
drunk,  that  it  reeled  under  our  feet."f  It  becomes 
us,  however,  with  deep  humiliation  always  to  remem- 
ber, that  the  sorcery  which  thus  drugged  the  world, 
was,  from  the  first,  most  prodigally  patronized  by  the 
vices  and  the  wants  of  human  nature.  We  are,  fur- 
ther, bound  to  acknowledge,  with  gratitude  and  reve- 
rence, the  providential  care  which  hath  preserved  the 
original  ingredients  of  the  chalice,  in  potency  and 
virtue,  sufficient  to  correct  the  poison,  and,  eventu- 
ally, we  trust,  to  overpower  it.  She,  who  hath 
earned  the  title  of  "  Mystery,  Babylon  the  Great,  the 
mother  of  harlots  and  abominations  of  the  earth," 
was,  nevertheless,  compelled,  by  the  wisdom  which 
ordereth  all  things,  and  which  slumbereth  not,  to 

*  Irving,  Babylon,  *c.  foredoomed,  p.  238.  t  Hooker. 


INTRODUCTION.  45 

guard  the  life  of  Christianity ;  although  her  dark  en- 
chantment transformed  it  to  the  semblance  of  idola- 
try and  corruption.  On  the  other  hand,  Europe 
never  can  forget  the  remorseless  and  sanguinary 
abuse  of  her  almost  superhuman  powers.  In  the 
annals  of  Christendom,  it  is  indelibly  written,  that  of 
all  the  empires  which  the  world  has  ever  seen  or 
trembled  at,  the  Papacy  was  the  most  merciless  in 
the  exercise  of  its  predominance,  whenever  it  was 
left  by  events  to  the  uncontrolled  manifestation  of 
its  spirit.  Its  maxims  of  government  had  a  uni- 
formity and  an  inflexibility,  like  that  which  distin- 
guished the  career  and  the  domination  both  of  its 
republican  and  imperial  predecessor.  The  very  life 
and  soul  of  its  policy,  was  to  spare  the  submissive, 
and  trample  down  the  rebellious.  If  this  relentless 
principle  was  ever  suspended,  it  never,  for  a  moment, 
was  forgotten  or  abandoned.  It  yielded  to  the  pres- 
sure and  obstruction  of  circumstances,  just  as  the 
inundation  yields  to  the  impediments  and  the  resist- 
ance, offered  by  the  face  of  the  country  which  it  is 
laying  waste.  It  wound  round  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tain and  the  promontory,  which  its  strength  was  una- 
ble to  undermine  or  to  overthrow ;  and  it  held  on  its 
stealthy  course  to  the  provinces  beyond,  till  the  whole 
land  was  overwhelmed,  and  the  summits  of  the  hills 
disappeared  beneath  the  flood.  In  this  very  faculty 
of  yielding,  lay  the  secret  of  its  resistless  and  uncon- 
querable might.  And  all  history  bears  witness  to  the 
desolation  which  marked  the  course  of  its  victorious 
fury.  The  thirteenth  century  is  disastrously  memora- 
ble for  the  murderous  crusade  against  the  Albigenses. 
In  the  fifteenth,  the  annals  of  the  Hussites,  the  Lol- 
lards, and  the  Moriscoes,  were  written  in  characters 
of  flame  and  blood.  The  horrid  tragedy  is  still  con- 
tinued through  the  two  following  centuries,  in  the 
martyrology  of  the  Reformers  and  the  Huguenots. 
To  name  the  Inquisition,  is  to  summon  up  before  the 
memory  such  prodigies  of  infernal  atrocity,  as  oppress 


46  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

and  distract  the  heart,  and  almost  cause  it  to  despair 
of  human  nature.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  indeed, 
the  demon  of  persecution  shrunk  and  cowered,  like  a 
guilty  thing,  before  the  advancing  light  of  civiliza- 
tion and  intelligence.  But  to  this  hour,  though  the 
fiend  is  bound  in  chains,  it  is  ready,  at  any  moment, 
to  emerge  from  the  pit,  should  it  be  able  to  burst  its 
fetters.  Infallibility  is  the  name  which  it  still  wears 
written  upon  its  vesture  and  on  its  thigh.  In  this,  it 
still  hopes  to  conquer.  In  virtue  of  this  it  is,  that 
the  spirit  of  Loyola  hath  once  more  descended  upon 
earth,  to  breathe  the  breath  of  life  into  remains, 
which,  in  the  eyes  of  the  unwise,  seemed  to  be  consigned 
for  ever  to  the  dust.  This  is  the  voice  which,  in  the 
hearing  of  the  present  generation,  has  denounced  all 
religious  toleration  by  the  name  of  impiety,  and  has 
prohibited  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures,  as  it 
would  prohibit  blasphemy.* 

The  foregoing  contemplations  will  dictate  to  us 
the  only  wise  and  prudent  answer  to  that  taunting 
question,  wherewith  the  mistress  of  all  Churches  hath 
been  wont  to  assail  those  who  abandoned  her  com- 
munion;— "Where  did  your  Church  lurk,  in  what 
cave  of  the  earth  slept  she,  for  so  many  hundreds  of 
years  together,  before  the  birth  of  Martin  Luther  ?" 
The  reply  is,  that  she  lurked  beneath  the  folds  of  that 
garment  of  many  colours,  which  the  hand  of  super- 
stition had  woven  and  embellished  for  her,  and 
wherewith  she  was  fantastically  encumbered  and 
disguised.  She  slept  in  that  cavern  of  enchantment, 
where  costly  odours  and  intoxicating  fumes  were 
floating  around,  to  overpower  her  sense,  and  to  sus- 
pend her  faculties ;  till,  at  last,  a  voice  was  heard  to 
cry,  Sleep  no  more.  And  then  she  started  up,  like  a 

*  Every  one  must  remember  the  protest  of  the  Belgian  clergy,  in  1815, 
against  religious  toleration  in  the  Netherlands;  and  the  decree  which 
some  years  since  issued  from  the  Vatican,  declaring  the  dissemination 
of  the  Bible  to  be  a  pernicious  and  profane  design.  Every  one,  txx), 
must  be  aware  of  the  revival  of  the  Jesuits,  and  of  the  zeal  and  activiijr 
of  that  order  since  its  resurrection. 


INTRODUCTION.  47 

strong  man  refreshed,  and  shook  herself  from  the 
dust  of  ages.  Then  did  she  cast  aside  the  gorgeous 
"leadings,"  which  oppressed  her,  and  stood  before 
the  world,  a  sacred  form  of  brightness  and  of  purity. 

It  is  a  pernicious,  though  shallow  artifice,  to  speak, 
of  Luther  as  the  architect  of  a  fabric  which  had  any 
other  foundation  than  that  which  was  laid  by  the 
Almighty  Master-builder.  Other  foundation  can  no 
man  lay.  "  The  Church  of  Christ,  which  was  from 
the  beginning,  is,  and  continueth  unto  the  end. "  The 
severe  majesty  of  the  structure  had  been  disfigured 
and  obscured  by  toyish  and  capricious  outworks ;  and 
it  had  been  girt  about  by  turrets  and  battlements, 
which  unhallowed  ambition  had  made  strong  for 
itself,  and  which  frowned  upon  the  most  precious 
liberties  of  man.  These  had,  for  ages  past,  been 
assailed  by  a  vigorous  though  desultory  warfare,  and 
the  attack  had  sometimes  been  powerful  enough  to 
warrant  the  hope,  that  their  strength  was  not  im- 
pregnable. But  it  was  left  for  Martin  Luther  to  go 
forth,  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  to  shake  the  greater 
part  of  them  to  ruins.  When  this  was  done,  the 
Sanctuary  was  seen,  in  its  grandeur  and  simplicity, 
resting  on  the  imperishable  rock;  and  men,  once 
more,  went  up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord,  to  worship 
Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

The  corruptions  which  had  deformed  and  depraved 
the  Christian  faith,  were  of  course,  the  gradual  work 
of  centuries.  The  foul  accretion  had  stolen,  imper- 
ceptibly, over  its  "  smooth  and  wholesome  body,"  till 
it  seemed  as  ifT  from  the  sole  of  the  foot,  even  unto  the 
head,  there  was  no  soundness  in  it.  As  might,  however, 
have  been  expected,  in  those  retired  and  simple 
communities,  which  were  furthest  removed  from  the 
influences  of  the  imperial  hierarchy,  the  original 
form  and  brightness  of  Christianity  were  best  guarded 
from  the  general  pollution.  There  seems,  for  in- 
stance, to  be  a  very  strong  presumption  in  favour  of 
the  belief,  that  the  people  01  the  valleys  of  Piedmont, 


48  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

known  by  the  name  of  the  Vaudois  or  Waldenses, 
had  preserved,  from  a  very  early  period,  a  far  purer 
faith  than  that  which  was  professed  by  the  great 
body  of  Christendom.  The  history  of  this  sub-alpine 
protestantism,  if  we  so  may  designate  it,  is,  indeed, 
enveloped  in  such  deep  obscurity,  that  any  attempt 
to  investigate  it  would  far  exceed  the  limits  or  the 
design  of  the  present  work.  We  cannot,  however, 
reflect  without  delight  and  wonder,  upon  one  precious 
document,  of  unquestioned  authenticity,  which  may 
be  regarded  as  a  confession  of  the  faith  of  these  peo- 
ple in  the  twelfth  century.  The  relic  in  question  is  an 
ancient  poem,  called  La  Nobla  Leycon,  containing  a 
metrical  abridgment  of  the  history  and  doctrine  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament,  in  the  original  lan- 
guage of  the  country,  and  evidently  compiled  for  the 
purpose  of  perpetuating  among  the  people  the  princi- 
ples of  sound  belief.  The  exact  date  of  this  very 
curious  and  valuable  monument,  can  scarcely  be 
ascertained  with  any  satisfactory  precision.  It  has 
been  concluded  from  the  opening  lines  of  it,  that  it 
was  composed  in  the  year  1100.  The  expressions, 
however,  are  of  sufficient  laxity  to  suit  various  pe- 
riods within  the  twelfth  century.4  But,  however 
this  question  may  be  determined,  it  is  still  beyond  all 
doubt  that  the  essential  doctrines  and  principles  of 
our  Reformation  will  be  found  in  this  religious  for- 
mulary, which  concludes  with  an  exposure  of  the 
gross  "  errors  of  the  Papacy,  the  simony  of  the  priest- 
hood, masses  and  prayers  for  the  dead,  the  impostures 
of  absolution,  and  the  abuses  of  the  power  of  the 
keys."f  From  that  time  to  the  present,  the  same 

*  "  Brethren,  give  ear  to  a  noble  lesson. 

One  thousand  and  one  hundred  years  are  fully  accomplished 
Since  it  was  written,  '  we  are  in  the  last  times.'  " 
It  would,  therefore,  appear,  that  the  terminus,  from  which  the  1100 
years  are  to  be  reckoned,  may  be  fixed  either  at  the  biith  of  Christ, 
which  is  often  alluded  to  in  the  New  Testament,  as  the  commencement 
of  "  the  last  times,"  or  final  dispensation ;  or,  at  the  date  of  any  one  of  the 
various  passages  in  the  New  Testament,  in  which  the  phrase — tfie  last 
times—is  found  to  occur.  t  Leger,  Hist  des  Eglises  Vaudoisca. 


INTRODUCTION.  49 

opinions  have  been  inflexibly  maintained  by  these 
simple  mountaineers ;  who  have  borne  a  perpetual 
and  heroic  testimony  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  in 
the  midst  of  the  most  merciless  and  appalling  per- 
secutions. 

Whether  the  antiquity  of  the  creed  recorded  in  this 
composition,  can  be  traced  up  to  primitive  or  apos- 
tolic times,  or  whether  it  was  the  produce  of  the 
twelfth  century,  is  a  question  attended  with  more 
perplexity  than  will  easily  be  unravelled.  It  has 
been  usual  to  refer  its  origin  to  Peter  Waldo,  or 
Waldensis,  as  he  is  sometimes  denominated,  an  opu- 
lent merchant  of  Lyons,  who  is  said  to  have  been 
driven  to  separation  from  the  Romish  Church  by  the 
perusal  of  the  Gospels  and  other  books  of  Scripture, 
which  he  had  employed  a  certain  priest  to  translate 
into  French.  It  may,  however,  be  a  point  of  reason- 
able controversy,  whether  this  person  was  the  teacher 
or  the  disciple  of  the  Piedmontese  Christians: — 
whether  he  did  not  rather  derive  from  them  the  title 
of  Waldensis,  instead  of  marking  them  with  his  own 
appellation,  as  their  original  founder.  In  support  of 
the  former  opinion  it  may  fairly  be  alleged,  that  se- 
veral Catholic  writers,  virulently  hostile  to  these  peo- 
ple, have  spoken  of  heresy  as  of  an  indigenous 
growth  among  these  Alpine  wildernesses.  The  extent 
and  the  antiquity  of  the  Waldensian  perversion,  is  a 
subject  of  perpetual  complaint  with  the  papal  au- 
thorities of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  And 
if,  to  these  considerations,  we  add  the  traditions  uni- 
formly prevalent  among  these  uncorrupted  shepherds ; 
their  own  confident  claims  of  immemorial  purity,  in 
faith  and  doctrine  ;  their  obscure  and  solitary  abodes ; 
and  their  remoteness  from  the  scene  of  pontifical 
splendour  and  despotism;  we  shall  find  but  little 
difficulty  in  the  surmise,  that  the  valleys  of  Pied- 
mont may,  from  primitive,  perhaps  from  apostolic 
times,  have  witnessed  a  more  undefiled  profession 
and  practice  of  the  Gospel,  than  can  easily  be  found 
5 


60  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

among  the  more  degenerate  communities  of  Christ- 
ian  Europe.  To  myself,  I  confess,  the  probability 
appears  to  be,  not  that  the  Vaudois  shook  off  the 
superstitions  of  the  Romish  Church,  but  rather  that 
they  had  never  put  them  on:*  and  that  when  the 
hand  of  power  was  stretched  forth  to  force  the  spot- 
ted garment  upon  them,  they  revolted  at  the  oppres- 
sion; and,  at  length,  recorded  their  protest  against 
it,  in  the  form  of  that  immortal  lesson,  which  to  this 
day  may  be  regarded  as  their  spiritual  petition  of 
right ! 

At  the  same  time,  I  would  wish  to  be  understood 
as  offering  this  view  of  the  matter,  not  on  the  ground 
of  positive  proof,  but  only  of  strong  presumption  ;  a 
presumption  which,  perhaps,  may  be  much  less  satis- 
factory to  others  than  it  is  to  myself.  Neither  is  it 
to  be  disguised  that  (even  if  the  Vaudois  are  to  be 
regarded  as  protesting,  from  the  earliest  times,  by 
their  practice  and  their  faith,  against  the  dominion 
and  perversion  of  the  Romish  Church,)  there  still 
may  be  a  doubt  whether  their  protest  carries  with  it 
the  full  weight  and  authority  which  belongs  to  a 
legitimate  branch  of  the  Church,  invested  with  the 
sanctity  of  apostolical  succession.  Their  noble  les- 
son itself,  we  must  rem-ember,  contains  no-  mention 
either  of  the  forms  of  ordination,  or  of  the  gradations 
of  sacerdotal  rank  and  office.  An  ancient  manu- 
script, indeed,  they  have,  relating  to  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  claiming,  among  the  privileges  which  God 
has  given  to  his  people,,  the  right  to  choose  their 
governors,  and  their  priests,  in  their  several  offices, 
"  according  to  the  diversity  of  the  work,  in  the  unity 
of  Christ,  and  conformably  to  the  apostolic  example, 
— For  this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  tkou  shouldest 

*  I  cannot  but  agree  with  Mr.  Gilly,  that  "  it  is  much  more  likely  that 
a  race  of  mountaineers,  secluded  from  the  world,  should  have  preserved 
the  purity  and  simplicity  of  the  primitive  Church,  than  that  they  should 
suddenly  become  Scripture  readers  and  reformers  in  the  twelfth  century, 
after  having  been  overwhelmed  in  the  darkness  that  prevailed  in  the 
ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  centuries." — Waldensian  Researches,  p.  113. 


INTRODUCTION.  51 

set  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting,  and  ordain 
elders  in  every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  :"  and  accord- 
ing to  the  same  document,  the  ministers  "  having 
good  testimonials,  and  being  well  approved  of,  are 
received  ,with  imposition  of  hands. "*  There  is  a 
vagueness  and  laxity  about  these  expressions,  which 
leaves  a  shade  of  doubt  still  hanging  over  the  succes- 
sion and  perpetuation  of  the  sacred  order  among 
them,  and  renders  somewhat  questionable  their  claim 
to  the  character  of  an  Episcopal  Church. f  Still,  it 
must  be  allowed,  on  all  hands,  that  the  existence  of 
a  retired  community,  living,  from  the  earliest  times, 
in  the  profession  of  opinions  essentially  Protestant, 
is  a  phenomenon  in  the  highest  degree  interesting 
and  important.  If  its  existence  could  be  fully  esta- 
blished by  proof,  such  a  society  might  fairly  be  re- 
garded as  an  image  of  what  Christianity  was,  at  least 
in  principle  and  doctrine,  before  it  was  disfigured  by 
the  corruptions  which  crept  over  it,  in  other  regions 
more  exposed  to  the  infection.  And,  in  that  case, 
the  Vaudois  might  be  regarded  as  ancient  and  most 
Venerable  witnesses  of  the  truth,  even  though  it  might 
be  too  much  to  acknowledge  them  as  decisive  and 
overpowering  authorities  for  it.  It  must,  at  all  events, 
be  most  gratifying  to  find  a  community  of  Christians, 

*  Gilly's  Waldensian  Researches,  p.  143. 

t  That  the  Vaudois  were  supposed  to  have  preserved  the  apostolical 
succession  in  the  fifteenth  century,  appears,  from  the  testimony  of  the 
venerable  John  Amos  Comenius,  the  leader  of  the  emigration  of  the  per- 
secuted Bohemian  and  Moravian  Protestants  from  their  own  country 
into  Poland,  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  afterwards,  in  1632, 
consecrated  bishop  of  the  dispersed  brethren.  In  his  history  of  the  Bo- 
hemian Church,  he  relates  that,  in  1450,  the  Bohemian  separatists,  in 
their  anxiety  to  have  their  pastors  ordained  in  regular  succession  from 
the  apostles,  sent  three  of  their  preachers  to  "a  certain  Stephen,  bishop 
of  the  Vaudois ;  and  this  Stephen,  with  others  officiating,  conferred  the 
vocation  and  ordination  upon  the  three  pastors,  by  the  imposition  of 
hands."  That  there  were  bishops  in  the  Waldensian  Church  a  century 
later,  seems  evident  from  their  confession  of  faith  presented  to  Francis 
the  First,  in  1544,  in  which  there  is  the  following  article :  "Nous  tenons 
cecy  pour  resolu,  parmi  nous,  que  les  Evgques  et  les  pasteurs  doivent 
gtre  irreprehensibles  dans  leur  doctrine  et  leurs  mceurs,  &c.  &c."  Sea 
Gilly's  Mountains  of  Piedmont,  p.  75.  (1824.) 


52  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

approximating  more  closely  to  our  modern  Protest- 
antism, in  proportion  as  they  were  removed  from  the 
influence  and  contact  of  the  Romish  hierarchy. 

But,  whatever  may  be  their  claims  to  immemorial 
antiquity,  or  unbroken  apostolical  succession,  or  per- 
fect purity  of  doctrine, — there  is  one  particular  in 
which  they  stand  unimpeached,  even  on  the  showing 
of  their  adversaries.  The  innocence  of  their  lives  is 
placed  beyond  all  doubt,  by  the  testimony  of  those 
very  monkish  writers,  who  execrate  their  rebellion 
against  the  power  of  the  Church,  and  charge  them 
with  the  presumption  of  preaching  without  a  regular 
mission.  The  picture  of  their  morals,  given  by 
Rayner,  (himself  originally  an  "  heresiarch,"  by  his 
own  avowal,  but  afterwards  one  of  the  bitterest 
persecutors  of  dissent)  may  of  itself  be  regarded  as 
absolutely  conclusive.  "  They  are  steady  and  modest 
in  their  manners;  they  have  no  ostentation  in  their 
dress ;  they  use  neither  rich  nor  splendid  apparel ; 
they  decline  commerce  from  their  aversion  to  lies, 
oatns,  and  fraud,  but  live  by  the  labour  of  their  hands ; 
they  do  not  amass  wealth,  but  are  contented  with 
necessaries;  they  are  chaste  and  temperate,  espe- 
cially those  of  Lyons  ;  they  do  not  frequent  taverns, 
nor  dances,  nor  other  vanities ;  they  refrain  from 
anger;  they  are  always  working,  learning,  or  teach- 
ing." It  is  true  that  this  testimony  may  be  taken  as 
embracing,  generally,  all  those  sectaries  who  were 
charged  with  a  revolt  from  the  dominant  Church: 
but  it  is  also  true,  that  it  has  a  more  emphatic  refer- 
ence to  the  men  of  Lyons,  and  by  that  term  this  wri- 
ter is  usually  understood  to  designate  the  Waldenses, 
considered  by  him  as  disciples  of  Peter  Waldo,  the 
celebrated  reformer  of  that  city. 

What  the  "  men  of  the  valleys"  were  in  Piedmont, 
the  Albigenses  may  possibly  have  been  in  Langue- 
doc,  and  the  south  of  France ;  although  it  must  be 
confessed  that  the  name  of  these  latter  religionists  has 
not  been  handed  down  to  us  with  the  same  unsullied 


INTRODUCTION.  53 

honours,  as  that  of  their  Alpine  brethren.  It  has 
been  confidently  affirmed,  that  the  creed  of  these 
people  was  tainted  with  the  monstrous  errors  of  the 
Manichaean  heresy:  and  the  charge  has  been  sup- 
ported by  a  large  body  of  contemporary  evidence ; 
and,  more  particularly,  by  the  recorded  acts  of  the 
inquisition  of  Thoulouse.  That  the  extravagant 
principles  of  this  strange  theory  were  partially  dis- 
persed among  the  multitude  of  sects,  which  at  this 
time  were  beginning  to  disturb  the  slumbers  of 
Romish  orthodoxy,  appears  almost  beyond  dispute. 
But  it  seems,  likewise,  irresistibly  clear,  that,  amidst 
the  variety  of  error  which  is  said  to  have  chequered 
the  motley  surface  of  their  belief,  one  peculiarity  was 
common  to  them  all;  for  without  exception,  they 
protested  against  the  exorbitant  wealth  and  intolera- 
ble despotism  of  the  Papal  hierarchy.  It  will  easily 
be  perceived  how  grievously  the  mixture  of  Gnostic 
©r  Manicha3an  error,  in  the  multiform  creeds  of  these 
people,  would  disqualify  them  for  an  effectual  con- 
flict against  the  abuses  they  presumed  to  denounce. 
Their  doctrinal  perversions  would  enable  the  defend- 
ers of  the  Catholic  faith  to  proclaim,  with  sufficient 
plausibility,  that  the  gainsayers  of  the  Papal  su- 
premacy were  likewise  open  adversaries  to  the  primi- 
tive truth  ;  that  the  traitors  to  the  Pontiff  were,  also, 
little  better  than  rebels  against  God ;  that  they,  who 
set  up  their  own  private  judgment  against  the  au- 
thority of  St.  Peter's  chair,  scrupled  not  to  affirm  a 
divided  empire  between  the  power  of  evil,  and  the 
Father  of  all  goodness.  To  what  precise  extent  these 
notions  could  justly  be  ascribed  to  the  Albigenses,  or 
the  Cathari,  or  other  reputed  heretics  of  the  twelfth 
or  .thirteenth  centuries,  it  would,  at  this  day,  be  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  decide ;  but  it  can  scarcely  be 
doubted,  that  they  retained  a  sufficient  amount  of 
erroneous  doctrine,  to  furnish  their  enemies  with 
very  formidable  arms  against  them.  In  another, 
and  much  more  creditable  respect,  however,  they 


54  LIFE    OF  WICLIF. 

undoubtedly  bore  a  very  near  resemblance  to  their 
Asiatic  predecessors.  The  greater  part  of  the  ori- 
ginal Manichaeans  are  represented  to  us,  with  all 
their  extravagances,  as  a  class  of  harmless  mystics, 
or  austere  enthusiasts ;  and  such  undoubtedly  were 
a  very  large  portion  among  their  European  succes- 
sors, in  subsequent  ages,  by  whatever  multitude  of 
names  they  may  have  been  consigned  to  public  exe- 
cration by  their  persecutors. 

A.D.  But,  let  the  innocency  of  their  lives  be  what 
1208.  ft  might,  what  would  it  be,  but  a  corslet  of 
gossamer,  against  the  blade  and  the  firebrand  of  the 
military  adventurer,  even  when  going  forth  under  the 
banners  of  a  religious  crusade  ?  Had  the  piety  and 
devotion  of  the  misbelievers  been  such  as  almost  to 
purify  the  age  in  which  they  lived,  so  long  as  the 
taint  of  a  rebellious  heresy  was  upon  them,  they 
would,  in  that  period,  have  scarcely  been  deemed 
worthy  to  exist.  It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the 
twelftn  century  that  the  hounds  of  persecution  were 
let  loose  against  them ;  and  before  the  end  of  the 
same  century,  the  very  name  of  the  Albigenses  had 
well  nigh  perished  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  Inno- 
cent the  Third  was  the  Holy  Father  whose  voice 
summoned  his  faithful  children  to  the  work  of  exter- 
mination ;  and  Simon  de  Montfort  was  named  the 
leader  of  the  host ;  "  a  man  like  Cromwell,  whose 
intrepidity,  hypocrisy,  and  ambition,  marked  him  for 
the  hero  of  a  holy  war."*  And  then  the  deluge  of 
havoc  burst  forth  upon  the  plains  of  Languedoc. 
The  warriors  of  the  Cross  achieved  unheard-of  mira- 
cles of  courage  and  of  butchery.  "  The  land  before 
them  was  as  the  garden  of  Eden ;  behind  them  it 
was  a  desolate  wilderness."  The  flame  and  the  steel 
swept  away  the  inhabitants  and  their  dwellings, 
"from  the  lower  of  the  watchmen  to  the  fenced  city.19 
Nay,  even  the  faithful  Catholics  themselves  were 

•Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  C.L 


INTRODUCTION.  55 

not  safe  from  the  blind  fury  of  the  tempest ;  for,  in 
the  midst  of  the  work  of  ruin,  a  voice  was  once 
heard  to  cry  out,  "  Let  all  be  slain — the  Lord  will  know 
his  own  /"*  The  tide  of  desolation  held  on  its  course, 
till  the  ancient  and  heroic  house  of  Thoulouse  fell 
before  it,  so  that  its  place  knew  it  no  more.  And  thus 
were  the  direst  furies  of  man's  corrupt  heart  sent 
forth  for  the  chastisement  and  extirpation  of  impiety ! 
Thus  was  the  earth  shaken  and  trampled  by  the  hoof 
of  demoniac  frenzy,  and  all  in  wild  pursuit  of  a  phan- 
tom of  spiritual  rebellion,  which  at  the  worst,  was 
guiltless  of  blood,  and  which  never  inflicted  a  wound 
on  the  rights  of  humanity,  or  on  the  peace  of  the 
world ! 

It  has  been  stated  above,  that  the  persecution  of 
these  unhappy  sectaries  was  inflamed  by  the  cry, 
which  charged  them  with  the  abominations  of  theMa- 
nichaean  heresy.  It  will,  therefore,  be  proper  briefly 
to  advert  to  the  introduction  of  this  ingredient  into 
the  Christianity  of  Europe.  In  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  century,  we  are  told,  there  arose  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Samosata,  a  sect  of  Christians, 
known,  for  whatever  cause,  by  the  name  of  Pauli- 
tjians.  Their  origin  is  usually  ascribed  to  the  follow- 
ing circumstance.  A  Christian  deacon,  on  his  return 
from  captivity  in  Syria,  then  in  possession  of  the 
Mussulmans,  was  hospitably  received  by  one  Constan- 
tine,  an  obscure  member  of  the  Greek  Church.  He 
received  from  the  gratitude  of  his  guest  a  copy  of 
the  Greek  Testament,  which  had  then  been  sealed  up 
by  the  Eastern  Church  from  popular  inspection.  The 
perusal  of  this  sacred  volume  converted  Constantine 
into  a  zealous  and  indefatigable  Reformer.  His  la- 
bours were  rewarded  by  the  fidelity  of  a  numerous 
body  of  followers,  collected  partly  from  the  Catholics, 
and  partly,  it  is  said,  from  the  remnants  of  the  Gnos- 

*  This  was,  actually,  the  cry  of  a  Cistercian  monk,  at  the  storming  of 
Bezieres.  where  heretics  were  slaughtered  by  thousands,  and  Catholics 
among  them! 


66  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

tics  and  Manichaean  sects.  The  creed  of  the  Pauli- 
cians, (for  such  was  the  title  by  which  they  soon  were 
designated,)  rejected  many  of  the  superstitions  which 
then  deformed  the  Catholic  belief  and  worship ;  but 
this  merit,  if  we  are  to  believe  their  adversaries,  was 
overpowered  by  their  adoption  of  opinions,  which 
violated  the  first  principles  of  natural  and  revealed 
religion.  They  attempted  to  combine  the  doctrines 
of  Zoroaster  with  those  of  Christ.  They  admitted 
the  existence  of  two  adverse  powers,  the  conflicting 
authors  of  good  and  evil.  The  New  Testament  they 
ascribed  to  the  Father  of  Mercies,  while  they  de- 
spised and  abhorred  the  Old,  as  a  collection  of  absurd 
and  impious  fables  ;  and  attributed  them  to  the  folly 
of  men,  or  to  the  malice  of  demons.  Their  detestation 
of  images,  at  last,  exposed  them  to  the  fury  of  the 
Empress  Theodora.  Her  reign  was  rendered  illustri- 
ous by  the  sacrifice  of  the  Paulicians ;  of  whom  one 
hundred  thousand  are  said  to  have  perished  "  by  the 
sword,  the  gibbet,  and  the  flames."  Oppression,  in 
time,  converted  the  inflexible  heretics  into  desperate 
rebels.  After  the  usual  vicissitudes  of  heroic  suffer- 
ing and  sanguinary  vengeance,  the  course  of  events 
transplanted  multitudes  of  them  from  Armenia  to 
Thrace,  from  Thrace  to  Italy  and  France ;  and  with 
them,  the  habit  of  perpetual  reference  to  the  Law 
and  the  Testimony.  Whatever  may  have  been  their 
doctrinal  aberrations,  they  still  acknowledged  Scrip- 
ture as  the  sole  foundation  of  belief;  and  they  who 
deny  that  any  remains  of  spiritual  independence  were 
then  to  be  found  in  Europe,  ascribe  to  these  perse- 
cuted exiles,  the  accidental  merit  of  scattering  over 
the  West,  together  with  the  tares  of  the  Oriental 
heresy,  the  good  seed  of  evangelical  reformation. 

Neither  creeds,  nor  confessions,  nor  apologies,  now 
remain,  which  might  enable  us  to  judge  of  the  de- 
gree, in  which  the  Paulicians  were  infected  with  the 
Manichsean  perversion.  The  most  express  testimony 
on  the  subject  is  that  of  Petrus  Siculus,  who  lived 


INTRODUCTION.  57 

towards  the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  and  who  had 
resided,  for  some  time,  as  ambassador  among  the 
heretics.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  his  opportunities  of 
informing  himself,  the  account  he  gives  of  their  be- 
lief is  such,  as  the  most  liberal  exercise  of  ingenuity 
and  candour  can  scarcely  reduce  to  any  semblance  of 
consistency :  for  he  tells  us,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
they  most  readily  and  earnestly  anathematized  the 
heresiarch  Manes,  and  on  the  other,  that  they  still 
retained  several  of  his  most  revolting  absurdities. 
They  affirmed,  for  instance,  the  existence  of  a  bene- 
volent, and  a  malignant  Deity;  they  rejected  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  they  denied 
altogether  the  authority  of  the  Old  Testament. 
These  prodigies  of  misbelief,  if  we  are  to  give  im- 
plicit credence  to  the  statements  of  monkish  annalists 
and  inquisitors,  they  imported  with  them  into  Europe; 
where  they  and  their  disciples  became  conspicuously 
detestable  under  the  various  titles  of  Catharists, 
Picards,  Paterins,  and,  more  especially,  of  Albigenses. 
Even  if  these  hostile  representations  were  to  be 
admitted,  they  would  bring  before  us  nothing  but 
what  the  usual  course  of  persecution  might  easily 
account  for.  The  spirit  of  intolerance  had  been  on 
the  wing  for  ages.  It  had  been  sweeping  all  dissent 
and  resistance  from  the  earth.  And,  while  the  tem- 
pest was  abroad,  it  was  probable  enough  that  the 
various  forms  of  belief,  whether  sound  or  visionary, 
which  were  at  all  opposed  to  the  established  system 
of  ecclesiastical  power,  would  be  driven  to  the  same 
hiding-places  for  shelter  against  its  fury.  And,  in 
that  case,  whenever  the  scriptural  verity  ventured 
forth  again  into  the  world,  it  could  not  be  very  sur- 
prising, if,  together  with  it,  there  should  emerge  the 
apparitions  of  the  Arian  or  Manichsean  heresies. 
But,  however  this  maybe,  I  cannot,  without  extreme 
difficulty,  reconcile  myself  to  the  hypothesis,  which 
ascribes  wholly  to  this  influx  of  Asiatic  separatists, 
the  revival  of  a  spirit  of  inquiry  in  Europe.  My 


58  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

doubts  respecting  this  question,  are  not  suggested  by 
a  disdainful  reluctance  to  acknowledge,  that  an  im- 
pulse so  glorious  might,  perchance,  be  communicated 
by  a  sect,  originating  in  some  obscure  corner  of  the 
East;  for  the  hand  of  Providence  can,  at  all  times, 
impart  an  irresistible  momemtum  to  the  lightest 
grains  and  atoms.  Neither  should  we  be  deterred 
from  the  reception  of  this  hypothesis,  by  the  fear  of 
that  scornful  rebuke,  wherewith  it  may  be  supposed  to 
arm  the  Papacy  against  us.  "  The  rebellion,"  she 
may  say,  "  which  shook  to  pieces  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  and  murdered  the  quiet  of  mankind,  was 
first  kindled  by  the  strange  fire  of  an  accursed  heresy. 
The  flame  which  has  gone  before  you,  on  your  way 
to  revolution,  never  descended  from  heaven.  It  came 
up  from  the  place  below ;  and,  as  might  be  expected, 
ruin  and  havoc  were  in  its  path."  For  a  fit  reply  to 
such  revilings,  none  can  be  at  a  loss,  who  recollect 
that  there  is  One,  who  can  over-rule  even  the  mighti- 
est resources  of  evil,  and  compel  them  to  work  to- 
gether for  the  accomplishment  of  his  purposes.  The 
grand  objection  to  this  solution  is,  in  my  humble 
judgment,  derived  from  its  extreme  improbability, 
t  is  surely  very  difficult  to  persuade  ourselves,  that 
the  sparks  of  opposition  were  then  so  entirely  trodden 
out,  throughout  all  Christendom,  but  that,  in  many 
an  obscure  retreat,  they  must  still  have  remained  in 
readiness  to  fly  up  in  me  face  of  the  power  that  was 
trampling  on  them.  It  is  impossible  to  look  into 
the  annals  of  the  Church,  without  perceiving  that, — 
although  the  vices,  and  the  fears,  and  the  necessities 
of  the  world,  were  gradually  enlisted  under  the  ban- 
ner of  superstition, — yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
natural  pride  and  independence  of  mankind,  even 
where  holier  motives  might  be  wanting,  were  per- 
petually opposing  a  resolute  front  against  the  usurpa- 
tion. After  the  struggle  of  a  thousand  years,  the  work 
of  conquest  seemed  to  be  well  nigh  complete ;  and 
the  West  was  sleeping,  to  all  appearance,  the  deep 


i 


INTRODUCTION.  59 

sleep  of  obedience  and  conformity.  But,  still,  it  is 
scarcely  credible,  that  the  elements  of  resistance 
should  have  been  utterly  suppressed,  or  that  Europe 
contained  within  herself  no  principle  of  deliverance 
or  renovation.  This  principle,  indeed,  may  very 
possibly  have  been  awakened  into  earlier  activity, 
by  the  infusion  of  a  fervid  element  from  another 
region.  The  Paulicians,  recent  from  the  smart,  or 
the  recollection,  of  inhuman  persecution,  may  have 
spread  throughout  the  provinces,  to  which  they  mi- 
grated, a  fiercer  impatience  of  all  spiritual  control. 
It  may  be  highly  probable  that  they  threw  into  more 
turbulent  combination  the  ingredients  which  they 
found  still  existing  in  their  adopted  country.  But  to 
allow  this,  is  very  different  from  confessing  ourselves 
debtors  to  them  for  our  own  emancipation,  or  invest- 
ing them  with  the  chief  honours  due  to  apostles  of 
religious  purity.* 

It  would  be  useless  to  load  these  pages  with  the 
uncouth  names  of  that  boundless  variety  of  sects, 
which  began  to  swarm  throughout  Christendom  at  the 
period  of  these  commotions,  and  which  give  some- 
what of  a  grotesque  appearance  to  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  the  darker  ages ;  a  list  to  which  Popery  is 
eternally  pointing,  as  a  record  of  the  evils  which 
spring  from  a  violation  of  her  sacred  unity,  and  hea- 
ven-descended power.  To  enumerate  them  would, 
probably,  be  to  reckon  up,  not  so  much  the  essential 
varieties  of  religious  sentiment,  as  the  varieties  of 
iidividual  temperament,  and  the  peculiarities  of  in- 

*  On  the  perplexed  and  difficult  questions,  relating  to  the  Vaudois, 
the  Albigenses,  and  the  Paulicians,  the  reader  may  consult  the  following 
works:  Leger,  Histoire  des  Eglises  Vaudoises;  Allix,  Remarks  on  the 
Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Churches  of  Piedmont ;  Turner's  History  of 
England,  part  iv.  c.  ii. ;  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  part  ii.  c.  ix. ;  Gilly's 
Excursion  to  the  Mountains  of  Piedmont,  (1824,)  and  Waldensian  Re- 
searches (1831 ;)  Peyran's  Historical  Defence  of  the  Waldenses.  (1829;) 
Gibbon's  fifty-fourth  chapter,  on  the  Paulicians ;  M'Crie  on  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Italy,  and  in  Spam.  In  these  he  will  either  find  the  necessary 
information ;  or.  at  least,  directions  to  the  authorities  in  which  the  truth 
may  be  sought  for. 


60  LIFE  OF  WICLIT. 

dividual  character.  These  heresies,  if  heresies  we 
are  to  call  them,  are,  for  the  most  part,  distinguisha- 
ble from  each  other  only  upon  paper.  Their  differ- 
ences (so  far  as  we  can  discern)  are  not  even  such  as 
exist  between  various  races  of  mankind.  They  may 
rather  be  compared  to  those  varieties,  which  are 
observable  between  the  figures  and  the  countenances 
of  men  of  the  same  race.  In  one  particular,  how- 
ever, as  we  have  already  observed,  the  resemblance 
between  them  all  is  singularly  striking,  namely,  in 
their  aspect  of  hatred  and  defiance  towards  the  papal 
domination.  This  it  was  that,  in  the  eyes  of  Rome, 
gave  to  their  physiognomy  that  expression  of  sur- 
passing ugliness,  in  which  all  other  deformities  were 
lost.  Ridicule  and  sarcasm  she  could  patiently  en- 
dure, just  as  statesmen  are  indifferent  about  lam- 
poons and  caricatures,  so  long  as  they  feel  their  power 
to  be  substantial  and  secure.  Her  knowledge  of 
human  nature  was  sufficient  to  assure  her,  that  the 
indignation  is  harmless,  which  can  freely  discharge 
itself  in  explosions  of  ingenuity  and  humour.  With 
still  more  profound  composure  did  she  regard  the 
sublimest  aspirations  of  unearthly  or  mystic  piety, 
which  occasionally  were  ascending  to  heaven  from, 
her  sacred  solitudes.  The  spirit  which  breathed  in 
these  retirements  was  often,  indeed,  essentially  at 
variance  with  the  worldly  and  ambitious  temper 
that  presided  in  her  councils,  and  directed  the  execu- 
tion of  her  designs ;  but  then,  it  was  embodied  in 
works  sealed  up  against  the  general  view,  and  open 
only  to  the  eye  of  self-denying  and  contemplative 
men:  it  therefore  offered  no  public  rebuke  to  her 
schemes  of  secular  aggrandizement  and  dominion. 
The  shafts  of  derision  were,  to  her,  like  the  efforts 
of  archery  against  battlements  of  granite  :  the  purest 
meditations  of  scriptural  devotion  harmed  her  no 
more  than  clouds  of  incense,  rising  in  the  midst  of 
those  earthly  odours,  which  were  constantly  steaming 
from  her  altars.  Nay,  more  than  this, — she  could 


INTRODUCTION.  61 

Letcd  unmoved  to  the  keenest  words  of  remonstrance 
and  reproof  from  the  mouth  of  her  own  sons,  pro- 
vided that  they  challenged  not  her  pre-eminence  and 
majesty.*  But  when  once  the  voice  of  revolt  was 
lifted  up,  strengthened,  as  it  was,  by  an  incessant 
appeal  to  the  Word  of  God,  she  began  to  tremble  for 
the  stability  of  her  rule.  She  saw  that  a  power  was 
abroad,  which,  if  not  mercilessly  crushed,  might 
batter  to  pieces,  or  undermine,  the  fabric  of  her  do- 
minion :  and  she  straightway  addressed  herself  to 
the  work  of  vengeance  with  all  the  remorseless  fero- 
city of  terror  and  of  pride.  Some  speculators  on  her 
nistory  there  are,  who,  in  the  contemplation  of  her 
enormities,  have  partially  consoled  themselves  with 
the  reflection,  that  execrable  as  they  were,  they  had, 
at  least,  the  effect  of  suppressing  a  premature  erup- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  liberty,  which  might  have  thrown 
the  social  system  into  desperate  confusion,  and  re- 
tarded the  improvement  of  the  human  race.  And  it 
can  scarcely  be  questioned,  that  much  danger  was  to 
be  apprehended  to  the  best  interests  of  man,  from 
the  extravagant  and  ignorant  fanaticism  which  some- 
times mixed  itself  with  the  movements  of  those 
gloomy  times.  It  requires,  however,  an  unusual 
hardihood  of  mind  to  commit  one's  self  to  such  deep 
speculation  on  .the  eventual  usefulness  of  crime.  I 
can  scarcely  venture  to  plunge  into  the  crater  of  such 
awful  and  mysterious  thoughts.  "We  should  rather 

*  Witness  the  sermon  delivered  by  Nicolas  Orem,  before  the  pope 
Urban,  in  1364,  in  which  the  preacher  loudly  and  intrepidly  denounces 
the  vices  and  abuses  of  the  Papacy,  and  calls  for  their  correction,  in 
order  that  God's  mercy  may  return  to  the  Church,  and  that  her  rebellious 
adversaries  may  be  disarmed.  "  I  think  verily,"  he  says,  "that  these 
many  years  there  have  not  been  so  many  and  so  despiteful  hearts,  and 
evil-willers,  stout,  and  of  such  a  rebellious  heart  against  the  Church  of 
God,  as  be  now-a-days.  Neither  be  they  lacking,  that  would  do  all  they 
can  against  it,  and  lovers  of  new-fangleness ;  whose  hearts  the  Lord  hapiy 
will  turn,  that  they  shall  not  hate  his  people,  and  work  deceit  against  his 
servants ;  I  mean  against  priests,  whom  they  have  now  in  little  or  no  repu- 
tation at  all,  albeit  many  yet  there  be,  through  God's  grace,  good  and 
godly.  But  as  yet,  the  fury  of  the  Lord  is  not  turned  away,  but  still  his 
hand  is  stretched  out.  And,  unless  ye  be  converted,  he  hath  bent  hia 
bow  and  prepared  it  ready."— Fdx,  p.  477. 
6 


62  LIFE  OF  W1CLIF. 

be  disposed  to  content  ourselves  with  a  general,  but 
yet  a  confident  persuasion,  that  all  these  frightful 
outbreakings  of  passion  have  wrought  together,  after 
some  inscrutable  manner,  for  the  welfare  of  man. 
and  for  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  the  Church  01 
God. 

To  turn  from  speculations  to  facts.  It  appears 
beyond  all  doubt,  that  the  noise  of  many  waters  be- 
gun, in  those  ages,  to  be  heard  in  Catholic  Christen- 
dom. The  streams  were  then  bursting  forth  from 
the  subterraneous  course,  to  which  they  had  long  been 
forcibly  confined,  and  the  whole  face  of  society  was, 
in  various  directions,  intersected  by  their  channels* 
They  continued  gradually  to  combine  their  might ; 
till,  at  last,  they  united  into  one  headlong  torrent, 
which  rolled  onward,  and  bore  down  before  it  the 
bulwarks,  whose  strength  and  solidity  had  been  the 
work  of  centuries.  It  remains  for  us  to  observe  the 
tributary  force,  wherewith  the  intellect  and  the  heart 
of  England  swelled  this  salutary  inundation. 


INTRODUCTION.  63 


INTRODUCTION. 


CHAPTER  II. 

View  of  Christianity  in  England,  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century. 

IN  surveying  the  annals  of  Christianity  in  this  coun- 
try, it  will,  for  all  substantial  purposes,  he  sufficient 
to  begin  with  the  establishment  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Church.  By  whom  the  light  of  the  Gospel  was  ori- 
ginally kindled  in  our  land,  it  is  now  impossible  to 
ascertain.  That  it  shone  in  our  dark  and  cruel  places 
at  a  very  early  period,  we  learn  from  the  voice  of 
tradition;  and  Glastonbury  would  seem  to  be  the 
spot  which  is  best  entitled  to  the  honour  of  raising  up 
this  beacon  flame,  for  the  guidance  of  our  barbarous 
ancestors.  Its  intensity,  however,  was  by  no  means 
sufficient  to  overpower  and  extinguish  the  hideous 
aboriginal  superstitions  of  the  country,  or  the  more 
civilized  paganism  of  its  Roman  conquerors.  The 
classic  mythology,  indeed,  gradually  waned  away,  in 
Britain,  together  with  the  influence  of  her  imperial 
protectors.  But  there  is  reason  to  believe  that,  as 
the  Roman  power  decayed,  the  Druidical  heathenism 
began  to  resume  its  strength,  and  to  disfigure  Chris- 
tianity, where  it  could  not  actually  destroy  it.  Of 
these  vicissitudes,  however,  no  authentic  history  is 
now  to  be  found.  Of  legendary  and  portentous 
hagiology,  there  is,  indeed,  abundance.  But  beyond 
this,  we  have  no  other  records  of  the  early  British 
Church. 

The  Saxon  invasion  brought  with  it  the  Tartaric 
idolatry  of  the  North.    The  grim  superstition  of  the 


<j4  LIFE   OF    WICLIF. 

Druids,  the  obsolete  paganism  of  Rome,  and  the  vene- 
rable forms  of  Christianity, — all  were  swept  away 
before  it.  They  retired,  together  with  the  Genius 
of  British  independence,  to  impenetrable  retreats  and 
mountain  solitudes,  and  left  the  land  as  an  heritage 
to  the  spirit  of  Odin :  so  that,  for  considerably  up- 
wards of  a  century,  the  Gospel  was  lost  to  the  king- 
doms of  the  heptarchy.  The  blessing  was  restored 
by  the  zeal  of  Gregory  the  Great.  The  well-known 
accident  which  impelled  him  to  the  pious  enterprise, 
is  illustrative,  at  once,  of  the  benignity  of  his  heart, 
and  the  quaintness  of  his  understanding.  Before  his 
elevation  to  the  pontificate,  he  had  seen  a  number  of 
comely  Saxon  youths  in  the  slave-market  at  Rome. 
Being  struck  with  their  appearance,  and  hearing  that 
they  were  called  Angles, — Angels,  he  exclaimed, 
they  truly  are,  and  ought  to  be  joined  to  the  angelic 
company.  On  being  told  that  they  came  from  the 
province  of  DeVra — Aye,  de  irA,  indeed,  said  he ;  from 
the  wrath  of  God  they  must  be  plucked,  and  brought 
unto  the  grace  of  Christ.  But  his  passion  for  quib- 
bling was  still  unsatisfied.  When  he  learned  that 
^Ella  was  the  name  of  their  king, — Alleluiah  !  he  in- 
stantly cried  out ;  Alleluiahs  must  be  chanted  by  them 
in  the  dominions  of  their  sovereign.  The  design, 
which  was  expressed  by  all  this  solemn  trifling,  never 
dropped  from  his  mind;  and  when  he  was  advanced 
to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  he  dispatched  forty  monks 
to  England,  for  the  vigorous  execution  of  it.  Augus- 
tine was  the  leader  of  this  venerable  mission  ;  and, 
most  auspiciously  for  the  enterprise,  the  Queen  of 
Ethelbert,  then  King  of  Kent,  was  a  Prankish  prin- 
cess, and  passionately  devoted  to  the  Christian  faith. 
Her  influence  accelerated  the  conversion  of  her  semi- 
barbarian  husband ;  and,  eventually  conferred  upon 
her  adopted  country  the  blessings  of  a  pure  and  hu- 
manizing religion. 

Nothing  can  well  be  more  interesting  or  impres- 
sive than  the  picture  which  has  been  left  us  of  the 


INTRODUCTION.  65 

Opening  of  this  missionary  labour.  It  was  in  the 
year  600  that  Ethelbert  was  apprized  of  the  arrival 
in  his  dominions  of  certain  strangers,  habited  in  a 
foreign  garb,  and  practising  several  unusual  and 
mysterious  ceremonies.  Their  object,  as  they  stated, 
was  to  be  admitted  to  the  presence  of  the  king,  in 
order  that  they  might  communicate  to  him,  and  to 
his  people,  tidings  of  measureless  importance  to  their 
everlasting  welfare.  The  sacred  embassy  was  re- 
ceived by  him  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  his  nobles,  and  seated  in  the  open  air. 
He  imagined,  it  would  seem,  conformably  to  an  an- 
cient superstitious  notion,  that  the  enchantments 
which  he,  at  first,  apprehended  from  these  awful  per- 
sons, would  be  less  formidable  under  the  canopy  of 
heaven,  than  within  the  walls  of  a  building  made 
with  hands.  The  ministers  of  peace  and  sanctity 
approached  in  procession,  bearing  a  silver  crucifix, 
and  a  figure  of  the  Saviour  painted  upon  a  banner, 
and  chanting  the  solemn  Litany  of  the  Church.  They 
then  stated  to  him  the  object  of  their  mission  :  and, 
having  received  from  him  a  prudent,  but  favourable 
reply,  were  permitted  to  fix  their  residence  at  Canter- 
bury, and  to  commence  at  once  the  labours  of  conver- 
sion. And  thus,  at  the  opening  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, were  laid  tire  foundations  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Church. 

Under  the  protection  of  this  powerful  prince,  the 
new  religion  advanced  with  a  prosperous  and  rapid 
course.  The  rude  heathenism  of  the  Saxons  gave 
way,  in  all  directions,  before  it.  Even  the  idolatrous 
priesthood  in  many  instances,  set  the  example  of 
conversion ;  and  it  is  related,  that  on  the  first  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel  in  Northumberland,  the  Saxon 
pontiff  himself  mounted  a  horse — which,  to  one  of 
his  order,  was  a  dire  abomination — and  burst  into 
the  consecrated  precinct,  where  with  his  own  hand, 
he  hewed  in  pieces  the  idol,  to  whose  service  bis 
former  life  had  been  devoted. 
6* 


66  LIFE  OF    WICLIF. 

It  would  be  foreign  to  the  design  of  this  work  to 
trace  minutely  the  progress  of  Christianity  among 
our  unlettered  and  half-savage  ancestors.  It  may 
be  sufficient  to  observe,  that  the  chief  obstructions  it 
had  to  encounter,  were  rather  from  the  coarse  and 
licentious  habits  of  the  people,  than  from  the  stub- 
bornness of  the  ancient  superstitions.  Surrounded 
by  the  ruins  of  Roman  magnificence,  they  dwelt  in 
hovels  of  plastered  wicker-work,  intent  on  nothing 
but  the  excitements  of  the  chase,  or  the  toils  of  mili- 
tary exercise.  Their  whole  system  of  life,  in  short, 
at  the  period  of  their  call  to  the  profession  of  the 
Gospel,  appears  to  have  been  not  many  degrees 
removed  from  a  state  of  abject  barbarism.  That  the 
religion  of  the  Cross  was  embraced  by  them  with 
fervid  zeal  and  true  simplicity  of  spirit,  may  be  rea- 
sonably concluded  from  the  change  which  gradually 
stole  over  the  rugged  features  of  society,  when  once 
it  was  exposed  to  these  new  and  blessed  influences. 
It  is  true  that  the  contest  between  passion  and  prin- 
ciple among  them,  continued,  for  a  long  time,  obsti- 
nate and  violent.  As  might  be  expected,  in  that  twi- 
light of  civility,  their  history  often  exemplifies,  in  a 
remarkable  degree,  the  wild  precipitation  with  which 
untutored  minds  can  rush  from  one  extremity  to  its 
furtherest  opposite.  The  lives  of  the  same  individu- 
als frequently  exhibited  the  darkest  atrocities,  followed 
by  the  almost  frantic  self-infliction ;  prodigies  of 
rapine  succeeded  by  an  utter  renunciation  of  the 
world ;  licentious  and  brutal  violence  ending  in  vows 
of  perpetual  chastity.  There  was  no  vice  so  mon- 
strous as  to  startle  them  in  their  career  of  self-indul- 
gence; no  expiation  severe  enough  to  deter  them, 
when  once  the  season  of  repentance  had  arrived. 
By  degrees,  however,  the  violence  of  the  conflict  was 
moderated,  under  the  gentle  arbitration  of  Chris- 
tianity. A  milder  spirit  gradually  insinuated  itself 
into  the  social  mass;  till,  at  last,  the  monastic  sys- 
tem, with  many  of  its  evils,  but  with  all  its  benefits, 


INTRODUCTION.  67 

obtained  a  surprising  predominance  throughout  the 
realm,  and  powerfully  advanced  the  work  of  civili- 
zation. England,  in  fact,  became,  by  degrees,  almost 
a  land  of  monasteries  ;  and  kings  were  not  ashamed 
to  descend  from  the  seat  of  dominion  to  the  retire- 
ments of  religious-contemplation.  The  effect  of-  this 
system  was,  to  soften  the  asperities  of  savage  life,  to 
tame  the  passionate  devotion  to  war  and  bloodshed, 
and  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  formation  of  petty 
monarchies  into  one  powerful  and  solid  empire. 

The  spirit  and  energy  of  the  Saxon  Church  was 
long  kept  up  by  its  continued  intercourse  with  Rome. 
The  meager  literature  of  the  country  was  invigorated 
and  enriched  by  the  learning  and  the  talent  of  a  long 
series  of  foreign  prelates,  among  whom,  the  name  of 
Theodorus,  the  seventh  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
stands  nobly  conspicuous.  By  birth  he  was  a  Greek ; 
and  by  him  the  knowledge  of  his  own  magnificent 
language  was  introduced  into  this  country.  The 
northern  provinces,  indeed,  although  they  maintained 
their  intercourse  with  Italy,  derived  moral  and  intel- 
lectual improvement  from  sources  peculiar  to  them- 
selves. The  names  of  lona  and  of  Lindisfarn  will 
be  illustrious,  to  the  end  of  time,  as  sanctuaries  of 
learning  and  of  piety.  The  one  was  a  solitary  and  bar- 
ren rock  in  the  Western  Ocean  ;  the  other  an  obscure 
island  at  the  mouth  of  Tees.  And  yet,  from  these 
insignificant  spots  it  was,  that  the  lights  of  literature 
and  religion  were  seen  to  issue  forth  into  the  thick 
darkness  which  enveloped  the  northern  regioas  of  our 
empire.  Such  was  the  ardour  of  study,  and  such  the 
holy  rigour  of  discipline,  which  distinguished  the 
monks  of  lona,  that  their  habitation  was  honoured  as 
an  island  of  saints,  and  their  episcopal  jurisdiction 
acknowledged  over  all  the  northern  parts  of  Britain 
and  of  Ireland.  Of  Lindisfarn,  what  more  need  be 
said,  than  that  it  fostered  the  virtues  and  the  industry 
of  the  venerable  Bede,  and  was  the  scene  of  his  vast 
and  immortal  labours?  It  was,  indeed,  unfortunate 


68  LIFE   OF    WICLIF. 

that  "  the  infancy  of  English  learning  was  supported 
by  the  dotage  of  the  Roman;"*  but  still,  the  esta- 
blishment of  an  institution  such  as  Lindisfarn,  and 
the  appearance  of  a  teacher  such  as  Bede,  in  a  coun- 
try which,  half  a  century  before,  was  without  an 
alphabet,  are  circumstances  which  can  scarcely  be 
paralled  in  the  history  of  man. 

But  at  the  time  when  England  was  struggling, 
with  all  the  energy  of  heart  and  hope,  to  emerge 
from  the  Serbonian  bog  of  ignorance  and  barbarism, 
she  was  thrust  back  again  into  its  depths  by  the  hand 
of  a  ferocious  adversary.  In  the  hour  of  her  repose 
the  Philistines  were  upon  her.  A  deluge  of  sanguin- 
ary heathenism  burst  over  her  from  the  North:  and 
she  began  to  sink  once  more  into  the  abyss  of  degra- 
dation and  of  misery.  Her  deliverance  was  the 
work  of  one  man.  On  the  name  of  Alfred  history 
has  lavished  all  her  resources  of  praise.  Like  the 
fabled  Hercules  of  old,  in  him  have  centered  the  col- 
lective honours  of  institutions  and  achievements,  the 
glory  of  which  a  more  perfect  knowledge  of  the  times 
might,  possibly,  enable  us  to  distribute  with  greater 
equity  and  credibility.  But,  after  every  reservation, 
enough  would,  doubtless,  be  left,  to  stamp  him  as  a 
miracle  of  wisdom,  energy,  and  patriotism ;  a  bene- 
factor such  as  Providence,  in  its  mercy,  sometimes 
raises  up  to  rescue  nations  from  despair.  The  Danes 
had  torn  his  kingdom  to  fragments.  He  left  it,  at 
his  death,  in  a  state  of  integrity.  In  the  eye  of  an 
historian  of  the  Church,  his  name  is  eternally  memo- 
rable, for  the  faithfulness  with  which  he  discharged 
the  first  of  all  those  paternal  duties,  for  which  the 
powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God.  He  laboured,  both 
in  his  own  person,  and  by  munificence  of  encourage- 
ment and  patronage,  to  restore  and  to  protect  the  fall- 
en religion  of  his  country.  Religion  seems,  in  truth 
to  have  been  the  pillar  of  flame  which  incessantly 

•  Burke, 


INTRODUCTION,  69 

directed  and  cheered  him,  throughout  the  greatness  of 
his  way.  He  commanded  personally  in  fifty-four 
pitched  battles — he  was  the  creator  of  the  navy  of 
Britain — he  was  the  protector  of  her  commerce — he 
was,  himself,  the  life  and  soul  of  her  public  justice — 
"he  has  been  thought,  by  some,  to  merit  the  title  of 
Founder  of  her  constitution — he  was  the  good  genius 
of  her  literature  and  arts — and,  lastly,  he  most  emi- 
nently deserves  the  name  of  Nursing  Father  of  her 
Church.  A  third  portion  of  his  time  was  given  up 
to  the  toils  of  study,  and  the  exercises  of  piety.  He 
translated  works  of  devotion — he  commenced  a  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalms — and  his  whole  life  appears  to 
have  been  an  example  of  the  power  of  Christianity 
to  take  captive  the  highest  faculties  and  noblest  affec- 
tions of  man.  And  the  whole  of  these  wonders  is 
rendered  more  overpowering  by  the  circumstance, 
that  they  were  achieved  under  the  almost  incessant 
pressure  of  severe  bodily  anguish.  His  life  was  one 
perpetual  disease,  and  was  terminated  at  the  age  of 
fifty-two — after  having  crowded  within  its  limits  such 
prodigies  of  useful  exertion,  as  would  seem  to  have 
demanded  the  days  of  an  ancient  patriarch,  and  the 
iron  vigour  of  a  Charlemagne. 

Sorely  would  it  have  grieved  the  heart  of  this  illus- 
trious man,  to  look  upon  the  tempest  which  soon 
began  to  lower  over  the  country  he  had  saved,  and 
which  burst  forth,  in  the  following  century,  with 
desolating  fury.  The  evil  angel,  which  first  let  loose 
the  storm,  was  one,  whom  the  Romish  calendar 
reckons  among  its  holy  ones.  The  name  of  Dunstan 
is  popularly  known  among  us  by  that  extremely  gro- 
tesque conflict,  in  which  he  is  supposed  to  have 
€xtorted  howls  of  anguish  from  the  enemy  of  man- 
kind. Alas !  well  would  it  have  been  for  England 
if  he  had  been  contented  with  the  honours  of  this 
triumph.  But  he  was  a  foul  and  hideous  incarnation 
of  the  same  spirit,  which  in  an  age  somewhat  less 
barbarous,  animated  another  renowned  saint,  the 


70  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

celebrated  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  In  order  to  com- 
prehend and  estimate  the  distractions  he  inflicted 
upon  this  kingdom,  it  will  be  necessary  to  pause  for 
a  moment,  and  to  consider  the  condition  of  the  Saxon 
Church  at  the  decease  of  Alfred,  and  in  the  succeed- 
ing age. 

The  ecclesiastical  discipline,  which  had  been  esta- 
blished by  Augustine,  was,  of  course,  Episcopal,  and 
the  dioceses  were,  respectively,  coextensive  with  the 
kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy.  Cathedrals  and  monas- 
teries were  built  and  endowed  by  the  pious  munifi- 
cence of  kings  and  nobles;  but  parochial  divisions 
were  as  yet  unknown.  Among  the  earliest  sources 
of  maintenance  for  the  Church,  may  be  numbered 
the  institution  of  tythes.  This  may  be  stated  simply 
as  a  fact,  without  drawing  us  into  controversy  as  to 
the  precise  nature  and  force  of  the  obligation  to  their 
payment.  The  distribution  of  this  fund  was  left  to 
the  bishop,  and  his  brother  presbyters ;  and  was  des- 
tined to  the  fourfold  purpose  of  supporting  the  clergy, 
— repairing  the  church, — relieving  the  poor, — and 
providing  hospitable  entertainment  for  the  pilgrim  or 
the  traveller. 

At  first,  the  religious  instruction  of  every  vicinity 
was  administered  by  the  perpetual  missionary  labours 
of  the  clergy  attached  to  the  cathedrals,  under  the 
direction  and  control  of  the  bishop.  To  remedy  the 
precarious  nature  of  this  supply,  chapels  and  orato- 
ries were  erected  in  every  diocese;  and,  in  time,  the 
necessity  of  field  worship  was  still  more  extensively 
superseded,  by  the  foundation  of  parochial  churches. 
This  important  change  was  not  the  effect  of  any  sud- 
den revolution:  it  was  the  gradual  work  of  time; 
and  was  either  dictated  by  the  piety,  or  suggested  by 
the  convenience,  of  the  landed  proprietors,  who  were 
naturally  desirous  of  the  constant  residence  of  a 
minister,  to  instruct  their  vassals  in  a  religion  which 
taught  them  the  duties  of  industry  and  contentment, 
One  consequence  of  it  was,  that,  by  an  agreement 


INTRODUCTION*  71 

with  the  bishops  and  their  clergy,  the  endowment  of 
tythe's  was  transferred  to  the  fixed  place  of  worship, 
and  vested  solely  in  the  local  minister ;  while  the 
patronage  of  each  church  remained  with  the  founder, 
and  his  representatives.  It  was  a  condition  invaria- 
bly attached  to  this  arrangement,  that  a  house  should 
be  provided  for  the  incumbent,  together  with  a  suita- 
ble allotment  of  glebe  land :  and,  in  order  that  the 
duties  of  hospitality  might  be  more  effectually  per- 
formed, the  residence  of  the  minister  was  usually 
fixed  either  by  the  way-side,  or  near  the  limits  of 
some  extensive  common. 

The  whole  scheme  of  our  ecclesiastical  polity,  in 
those  ages,  was  framed  and  consolidated  by  the  energy 
and  the  intelligence  of  Archbishop  Theodore ;  who 
established  a  uniformity  of  discipline  and  govern- 
ment throughout  all  the  churches,  under  the  primacy 
of  Canterbury.  The  exertions  of  this  eminent  and 
enlightened  prelate,  in  behalf  of  literature,  have  al- 
ready been  honourably  mentioned.  His  spirit  seemed, 
for  a  time,  to  animate  the  clerical  order.  Their  in- 
tellectual attainments  were,  for  the  age,  respectable, 
and  their  attention  to  their  sacred  duties  almost 
exemplary.  But  their  first  works  were,  unhappily, 
succeeded  by  a  period  of  deplorable  degeneracy ;  and 
the  decline  of  piety  and  learning  was  frightfully 
hastened  by  the  ruinous  ferocity  of  the  Danes.  The 
monastic  establishments  were  destroyed  by  these 
ignorant  and  brutal  savages ;  and  a  headlong  relapse 
towards  barbarism  was  the  natural  effect  of  their 
fury.  All  that  could  be  accomplished  by  man,  was 
done  by  Alfred  for  the  restoration  of  letters  and  reli- 
gion. But  the  hopelessness  of  the  task  may  be  esti- 
mated by  the  fact  that,  at  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
a  single  priest  was  not  to  be  found  south  of  the 
Thames  with  Latin  enough  to  understand  the  daily 
services  which  he  muttered,  and  that  the  religious 
establishments  throughout  the  land  were  wholly 
broken  up.  Arid  when  the  monastic  system  began 


72  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

to  revive,  many  years  after  his  death,  its  resurrection 
was  attended  with  convulsions  that  rent  the  kingdom 
to  pieces,  and  helped  to  make  it  once  more  an  easy 
prey  to  its  ever  watchful  and  sanguinary  assailants. 

The  spirit  that  presided  over  these  commotions,  was 
Dun stan ;  a  man  who  has  done  more  than,  perhaps, 
any  other  individual  that  can  be  mentioned,  to  inflict 
upon  mankind  the  curse  of  a  suspicion,  that  priest- 
craft and  religion  are  one.  The  history  of  supersti- 
tion can  scarcely  present  another  name  so  infamous 
for  barefaced  abuse  of  vulgar  credulity,  and  for  a 
prodigal  application  of  the  grossest  machinery  of 
imposture.  His  progress  from  his  cell  at  Glaston- 
bury  to  the  primacy  of  England  is  one  perpetual 
series  of  atrocity  and  fraud.  His  grand  object  was 
to  erect  the  Benedictine  order  on  the  ruins  of  the 
national  Church  and  to  consign  to  monks  the  whole 
spiritual  government  of  the  realm.  His  command- 
ing genius  was  well  suited  to  this  pernicious  enter- 
prise ;  and  the  success  of  his  machinations  was 
calamitous  and  astounding.  It  forms  altogether  a 
monument  of  unscrupulous  ambition,  such  as  might 
have  appeared  extravagant  and  monstrous,  even  in 
the  visions  of  romance.  That  its  proportions,  how- 
ever, have  not  been  exaggerated,  we  may  collect 
from  the  circumstance,  that  his  biography  has  been 
delivered  to  us,  not  by  calumnious  adversaries,  but 
by  admiring,  and  partly  by  contemporary,  chroniclers; 
and  the  gratitude  of  Rome  has  preserved  his  name 
to  this  day  on  her  register  of  canonized  saints. 

But  the  works  even  of  this  architect  of  evil  were 
not  destined  to  last.  Unhappily,  however,  the  Danes 
were  the  instruments  employed  for  their  destruction. 
When  they  renewed  their  incursions,  the  religious 
establishments  as  usual,  fell  before  their  stupid  fero- 
city, and  the  plague  of  ignorance  and  depravity  once 
more  settled  upon  the  land.  The  barbarians,  indeed, 
conformed  to  the  religion  which  they  found;  but 
their  very  conformity  was  marked  with  insolence 


INTRODUCTION.  73 

and  profaneness.  The  clergy,  whom  Duns  tan  would 
have  made  the  autocrats  of  the  country,  were  con- 
verted almost  into  its  menial  slaves.  They  were 
doomed  to  drain  off  the  cup  of  humiliation,  even  to 
its  bitterest  dregs  :  for  the  savages,  who  ruled  them, 
frequently  compelled  them  to  celebrate  the  services 
of  the  altar,  not  only  in  their  private  houses,  but  in  the 
very  chambers  where  their  wives,  or  their  concubines, 
were  reposing  by  their  sides  !  In  short,  the  wild 
deluge  of  barbarism,  wickedness  and  tyranny,  was 
rising  so  rapidly,  that,  according  to  all  human  judg- 
ment, nothing  but  some  mighty  revolution  could  have 
arrested  the  progress  of  the  flood;  and  the  Norman 
Conquest  may  reasonably  be  regarded  as  a  monument 
at  once  of  the  goodness  and  the  severity  of  God. 

Bowed  down,  however,  as  they  were  by  the  tyranny 
of  their  late  masters,  the  clergy  still  retained  suffi- 
cient spirit  to  embarrass  and  provoke  the  Conqueror 
by  their  inflexible  opposition  to  his  government. 
The  only  effect  of  their  resistance  was  the  expulsion 
of  the  native  ecclesiastics  from  their  dignities,  and 
the  introduction  of  foreigners  in  their  place.  Of 
these  the  most  illustrious  was  Lanfranc,  who  reluc- 
tantly accepted  the  primacy  of  England.  By  birth  he 
was  an  Italian,  and  he  brought  with  him  to  his  office 
the  most  eminent  attainments  which  Italy  could 
supply.  He  combined  in  his  own  person  all  the  best 
qualities,  and  some  few  of  the  worst,  which  could 
distinguish  a  churchman  of  the  eleventh  century. 
He  was  the  restorer  and  the  patron  of  letters,  and 
was  altogether  admirable  for  his  charity  and  munifi- 
cence, and  for  the  high-minded  integrity  of  his  ad- 
ministration. On  the  other  hand,  he  was  ardently 
devoted  to  the  supremacy  of  Rome;  he  laboured 
urgently  to  inflict  celibacy  upon  the  clergy;  he  was 
a  vehement  advocate  for  the  doctrine  of  the  corporeal 
presence  in  the  sacrament,  a  dogma  scarcely  heard 
of  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church:  and  lastly,  he  was 
by  no  means  scrupulous  in  the  use  of  that  machinery 
7 


74  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

by  which  superstition  loves  to  maintain  its  ascen- 
dency. His  mind,  however,  lofty  as  it  was,  was  not 
powerful  enough  to  "rebuke  the  genius"  of  his 
master. — The  resolute  and  arbitrary  temper  of  the 
Conqueror  enabled  him  to  stand  erect  even  before  the 
mighty  spirit  of  Hildebrand  himself,  and  to  encounter, 
with  a  peremptory  refusal,  the  demand  of  the  Pon- 
tiff, that  the  monarch  of  England  should  do  fealty 
for  his  kingdom  to  the  see  of  Rome.  It  will,  there- 
fore, scarcely  be  surprising,  if  Lanfranc  found  him- 
self no  match  for  the  imperious  disposition  of  his 
sovereign.  Such  was  his  weariness  and  dejection, 
under  the  difficulties  which  perpetually  assailed  him, 
that  at  last,  he  complained  of  his  office  as  a  burden 
too  heavy  for  him  to  bear,  and  actually  besought  the 
Pope  to  relieve  him  from  its  oppression. 

The  gigantic  scheme  of  Gregory  VII.  for  erecting 
the  chair  of  St.  Peter  into  the  throne  of  Christendom, 
and  making  Rome  once  more  the  mistress  of  the 
world,  is  sufficiently  recorded  in  the  annals  of  Europe. 
The  march  of  usurpation  was,  for  a  time,  diverted 
from  this  country,  by  the  inflexible  sternness  and 
vigour  of  the  Conqueror,  the  reckless  obstinacy  of 
Rufus,*  and  the  intelligent  firmness  of  Henry  Beau- 

•  We  may  form  some  judgment  of  the  stubbornness  and  hardihood 
of  Rufus,  from  the  following  gravamina  of  Archbishop  Anselm,  ad- 
dressed By  him  to  the  Pope :  "  I  see  in  England  many  evils  whose  cor- 
rection belongeth  to  me,  and  which  I  could  neither  amend,  nor  suffer 
without  my  own  fault  The  King  desireth  of  me  that  I  should  consent 
to  his  pleasures,  which  were  against  the  law  and  will  of  God.  For  he 
would  not  have  the  Pope  received  nor  appealed  to  in  England,  without  his 
commandment :  neither  that  I  should  send  a  letter  unto  him,  or  receive 
any  from  him,  or  that  I  should  obey  his  decrees.  He  suffered  not  a 
council  to  be  kept  in  his  realm  now  these  thirteen  years,  since  he  was 
king.  In  all  these  things,  and  such  like,  if  I  asked  any  counsel,  all  my 
suffragan  bishops  of  his  realm  denied  to  give  me  any  counsel,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  king's  pleasure.  After  that  I  saw  these  and  such  other 
things,  that  are  done  against  the  will  and  law  of  God,  I  asked  a  license 
of  him  to  go  to  Rome,  unto  the  see  apostolical,  that  I  might  there  take 
counsel  for  my  soul,  and  for  the  office  committed  unto  me.  The  king 
said  that  I  offended  against  him  for  the  only  asking  of  license ;  and  pro- 
pounded to  me,  that  I  should  either  make  amends  to  him  for  the  same. 
as  a  tresspass,  (assuring  him  never  to  ask  his  license  any  more  to  appeal 
to  the  Pope  at  any  time  hereafter,)  or  else  that  I  should  quickly  depart 
out  of  his  land.  Wherefore,  choosing  rather  to  go  out  of  the  land  than 


INTRODUCTION.       i^^  V5 

elerc.  In  the  mean  time,  humanity  and  literature, 
which  had  been  revived  by  the  influence  of  Lanfranc, 
and  of  Anselm  his  successor  in  the  primacy,  were 
prosperously  expanding  themselves  beyond  the  walls 
of  monasteries,  and  gradually  smoothing  down  the 
shaggy  barbarism  of  the  age.  But  then  came  that 
tornado  of  desolation,  the  reign  of  Stephen,  which 
severely  damaged  the  mounds  and  bulwarks  raised 
by  his  predecessors  against  the  tide  of  encroachment, 
and  left  the  first  of  the  Plantagenets  perilously  ex- 
posed to  its  assault.  The  spirit  of  that  active,  but 
restless  and  irritable  prince,  was  ill-fitted  for  a  con- 
flict with  the  self-possessed  and  inflexible  genius  of 
Becket:  The  subject  of  controversy  between  them, 
was,  the  total  immunity  of  ecclesiastics  from  secular 
jurisdiction ;  a  portentous  privilege,  with  which  the 
course  of  events,  and  the  necessities  of  the  times, 
had  gradually  invested  them.  The  dispute,  however, 
at  last,  virtually  resolved  itself  into  the  question, 
whether  or  not  the  power  of  the  sceptre  should  bow 
down  before  that  of  the  crozier,  and  the  authority  of 
the  State  be  absorbed  in  that  of  the  Church.  The 
conflict  was  one  which  demanded,  on  the  part  of  the 
sovereign,  an  adamantine  solidity  of  character,  like 
that  of  the  first  William,  instead  of  the  fitful  impa- 
tience, and  gusty  passion,  which  unhappily  distin- 
guished his  descendant.  None  but  a  mind  of  extra- 
ordinary strength  and  grandeur  could  form  a  fit  an- 
tagonist for  the  saint  of  Canterbury.  The  struggle 

agree  to  so  wicked  a  thing,  I  came  to  Rome,  as  you  know,  and  declared 
the  whole  matter  to  the  Lord  Pope.  The  king,  by  and  by,  (as  soon  as 
I  went  out  of  England,)  invaded  the  whole  archbishopric,  and  turned  it 
to  his  own  use;  taxing  the  monks  only  with  bare  meat,  drink,  and 
cloth.  The  king,  being  warned  and  desired  of  the  Lord  Pope  to  amend 
this,  contemned  the  same,  and  yet  continueth  in  his  purpose  still.  And 
now  is  the  third  year,  since  I  came  thus  out  of  England,  and  more. 
Some  men,  not  understanding,  demand  why  I  did  not  excommunicate 
the  kins.  But  the  wiser  sort,  and  such  as  have  understanding,  counsel 
me  that  I  do  not  this  thing,  because  it  belongeth  not  unto  me,  "both  to  com- 
plain and  punish.  To  conclude  I  was  forewarned  by  my  friends  that  are 
under  the  king,  that  mine  excommunication  (if  it  should  be  done)  would 
be  laughed  to  scorn  and  despised." — Fox.  p.  211. 


76  LIFE   OF   WICLIF, 

would  have  tasked,  to  the  utmost,  the  energies  of  the 
Conqueror  himself;  and  even,  with  him,  its  issue 
might  have  been  doubtful.  The  termination  of  it, 
in  the  case  of  Henry  is  well  known.  It  brought  him, 
an  abject  and  naked  ^penitent,  to  the  tomb  of  the  in* 
trepid  martyr,  and  it  left  the  public  mind  in  slavish 
prostration  before  the  throne  of  the  vicegerent  of  God, 

From  this  time  the  grasp  of  the  Papal  power  be- 
came continually  closer  ;  and  the  next  century  beheld 
a  king  of  England  laying  his  crown  at  the  feet  of  the 
pontifical  minister,  and  binding  his  realm  to  the 
payment  of  an  ignominious  tribute.  The  distractions 
which  followed,  contributed,  on  the  whole,  to  aug- 
ment the  strength,  and  to  swell  the  arrogance,  of  the 
Papal  despotism ;  for,  at  each  vicissitude  of  the  con- 
flict, the  appeal  was  addressed  to  his  tribunal,  and, 
of  course,  helped  to  confirm  the  belief,  that  the  chair 
of  St.  Peter  was  the  supreme  seat  of  justice  and 
authority  on  earth. 

The  reign  of  John,  and  that  of  Henry  the  Third, 
are  marked  by  the  indelible  infamy  of  the  crusade 
against  the  Albigenses,  commanded,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  our  countryman  Simon  de  Montfort.  Bigotry  and 
rapine  were  the  furies  which  prompted  this  accursed 
enterprise  :  and  "  it  differed  in  nothing,  but  in  name, 
from  the  ferocious  expeditions  of  the  Northman 
votaries  of  Thor  and  Odin."*  By  the  almost  total 
extirpation  of  the  heretics,  the  fabric  of  the  Papal 
dominion  was  to  all  appearance  immovably  consoli- 
dated. But  though  their  destruction  seemed  to  be 
complete,  many  a  bleeding  remnant  of  them  was 
dispersed  over  Europe,  to  spread  in  all  directions, 
perhaps  the  light  of  a  purer  faith,  but,  certainly,  a 
sentiment  of  unconquerable  hatred  against  the  power 
of  Rome ;  so  that  it  might  almost  be  said  of  this 
prodigy  of  wickedness,  that  it  was  the  day-star  of 
the  Reformation,  although  it  rose  out  of  the  deep 

*  Turner,  Hist.  England. 


INTRODUCTION.  77 

with  an  aspect  of  blood.  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt 
that  the  sympathy  excited  by  the  sufferings  of  these 
people  had  extended  to  this  country.  Most  certain 
it  is,  that  a  spirit  of  indignant  resistance  to  the  Ca- 
tholic hierarchy  began  to  manifest  itself  in  England 
about  the  period  of  these  hateful  massacres.  From 
that  time  the  voice  of  Parliament  began  to  be  fre- 
quently heard,  in  loud  remonstrance  against  the  rapa- 
city and  insolence  of  the  Pontiff;  and  the  cry  was 
sometimes  deepened  by  murmurs  of  discontent  from 
the  English  Clergy  themselves,  who  began  to  feel 
impatient  under  the  exactions  of  their  master.  There 
was  a  heaving  and  a  swell  upon  the  surface  of  things, 
portending  commotions  at  which  Rome  might  have 
trembled,  had  she  not  glorified  herself,  in  her  infatua- 
tion, and  said  in  her  heart,  I  sit  as  a  Queen,  and  shall  see 
no  sorrow.  Even  the  genius  of  the  scholastic  philo- 
sophy had  secretly  helped  to  inflame  the  spirit  of  in- 
surrection. For  though  it  was  wretchedly  adapted 
to  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  mind  in  the  discovery  of 
truth,  its  tendency,  unquestionably  was,  at  least,  to 
give  activity  and  independence  to  the  intellect,  and 
to  engage  it  in  speculations  exceedingly  incommodi- 
ous to  irresponsible  power  and  infallible  authority. 
The  agitations  produced  by  these  various  causes  will 
be  occasionally  adverted  to  in  the  folio  wing  narrative. 
In  the  meantime,  it  would  be  unpardonable  in  a 
biographer  of  Wiclif  to  abstain  from  reminding  the 
present  age,  of  one  in  whom  the  spirit  of  religious 
freedom  and  integrity  manifested  itself  with  an  ener- 
gy, which  was  the  glory  of  his  age,  and  which  fully 
entitles  him  to  be  regarded  as  the  predecessor  of 
our  Reformer.  The  person  I  allude  to,  is  Grostete, 
the  ever  memorable  Bishop  of  Lincoln. 

It  appears  that  this  eminent  man  was  master  of 
all  the  learning  and  science  which  was  then  to  be 
had,  confused  and  inaccurate  as  it  was.  His  attain- 
ments were  such  as  to  confer  upon  him,  for  a  time, 
the  dangerous  renown  of  a  magician,  and,  ultimately, 
7* 


78  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

to  elevate  him  to  the  see  of  Lincoln.  He  was  ad- 
vanced to  this  dignity  in  1235,  when  he  was  about 
fifty  years  of  age ;  and  even  at  that  mature  period  of 
his  life  he  seems  to  have  been  an  ardent  admirer  of 
the  mendicant  preachers.  His  esteem  for  them  had 
been  contracted  at  the  University  of  Oxford  probably 
before  they  had  manifested  any  symptoms  of  their 
subsequent  degeneracy.  When  he  was  raised  to  his 
bishopric,  the  ignorance  and  dissoluteness  of  many  of 
his  clergy  still  impelled  him  to  encourage  the  labours 
X)f  these  fraternities,  to  the  grievous  disparagement 
and  discontent  of  the  parochial  incumbents.  In  this, 
as  in  every  thing  he  undertook,  he  was  somewhat 
fervid  and  impetuous  ;  but  he  lived  long  enough  to 
repent  of  his  generous  confidence  in  the  sanctity  and 
,disinterestedness  of  these  Papal  auxiliaries.  In  1247 
an  incident  occurred,  which  must  have  awakened  his 
suspicions, — (if  they  were  still  sleeping) — respecting 
the  spiritual  usefulness  and  efficacy  of  the  new  orders. 
Two  Franciscans  were  dispatched  to  England,  armed 
with  a  formidable  apparatus  of  credentials,  for  the 
extortion  of  money  on  behalf  of  the  Pontiff.  Six 
thousand  marks — (probably  full  50,OOOZ.  of  our  pre- 
sent money) — was  the  moderate  sum  demanded  from 
die  clergy  of  the  diocese  of  Lincoln !  The  enormity 
.of  the  impost,  and  the  pompous  insolence  of  the  exacj- 
tors,  filled  the  honest  prelate  with  indignation  and 
amazement.  He  told  the  friars,  to  their  faces,  that 
it  was  dishonourable  and  impracticable ;  and  posi- 
tively refused  to  entertain  it  for  an  instant,  until  the 
sense  of  the  nation  should  be  taken  upon  its  lawful?- 
ness.  Notwithstanding  this  intrepid  repulse  of  the 
mendicants,  he  succeeded,  the  next  year,  in  obtaining 
from  Innocent  IV.  authority  to  reform  the  religious 
.orders  in  his  diocese.  The  letters  which  conferred 
this  power  on  him,  like  all  other  instruments  from 
Rome,  were  inordinately  costly  ;  and  the  event  shows 
that  their  price  was  the  chief  motive  which  recon- 
ciled .the  Pontiff  to  s,uch  an  appearance  of  concession. 


INTRODUCTION.  79 

111  pursuance  of  this  commission,  the  bishop  deter- 
mined to  take  into  his  own  custody  the  rents  of  the 
religious  houses,  in  order  that  he  might  appropriate 
to  the  services  of  piety,  the  wealth  which  had  hi- 
therto been  wasted  in  luxury  and  pomp.  This  pro- 
ceeding immediately  produced  an  equally  profitable 
appeal  to  the  Holy  See ;  and  the  result  was,  that 
G  rostete,  though  an  aged  man,  was  compelled  to  an- 
swer it  in  person,  and,  for  that  purpose,  to  undergo 
the  toil  and  the  expense  of  a  journey  to  Lyons,  then 
the  residence  of  the  Pope.  The  decision,  as  might 
be  expected,  was  adverse  to  the  reforming  bishop. 
It,  however,  overwhelmed  his  unsuspecting  nature 
with  consternation ;  and  he  openly  remonstrated 
with  the  Pontiff  on  his  duplicity.  His  astonishment 
must  have  been  deepened  by  the  reply  of  Innocent  to 
his  expostulations.  "  What  concern  is  this  of  yours  ?" 
said  he.  "  You  have  delivered  your  own  soul;  and 
/  have  done  my  pleasure,  in  showing  favour  to  the 
monks.  Is  your  eye  evil  because  I  am  good  ?"  On  this 
eruption  of  shameless  and  almost  profane  effrontery, 
Grostete  was  overheard  to  mutter — "  0  money,  mo- 
ney, how  vast  is  thy  power  every  where — how  irre- 
sistible at  Rome !"  The  words  reached  the  ears  of 
the  Pope  ;  but  they  only  produced  a  burst  of  invec- 
tive, in  which  he  charged  the  English  with  a  merci- 
less propensity  to  grind  and  impoverish  each  other, 
and  accused  the  Bishop  himself  of  a  tyrannical  and 
rapacious  design  upon  the  property  of  pious  and  hos- 
pitable men  !  This  language,  from  the  most  noto- 
rious plunderer  in  Europe,  nearly  reduced  the  bishop 
to  despair.  He  was,  nevertheless,  resolved  to  leave 
.behind  him  his  testimony  against  these  iniquities; 
which  he  accordingly  did,  by  delivering  to  the  Pope, 
jand  two  of  his  Cardinals,  copies  of  a  long  protest 
against  the  flagitious  practices  of  the  Pontifical  court. 
The  issue  of  this  disastrous  adventure  almost  drove 
him  to  the  resignation  of  his  crozier ;  and  he  was 
•withheld  from  the  execution  of  his  purpose  only  by 


80  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

the  recollection,  that,  to  vacate  his  see,  might  only  be 
to  expose  it  to  a  speedier  inroad  of  rapine  and  abuse. 
From  this  time,  he  accordingly  devoted  himself 
more  zealously  than  ever  to  his  episcopal  duties ;  ia 
the  discharge  of  which,  he  was,  no  doubt,  perpetually 
invigorated  by  the  indignant  recollection  of  his  visit 
to  the  Pope.  In  1253  the  Pontiff  put  his  courage  to 
the  proof;  by  a  scandalous  exercise  of  the  Papal  pre- 
rogative of  provision.  He  addressed  a  mandate  to 
the  bishop,  enjoining  him  to  collate  an  Italian  youth, 
the  nephew  of  Innocent,  to  the  first  vacant  canonry 
in  the  Cathedral  of  Lincoln :  and  he  accompanied  his 
injunction  with  a  menace,  that  excommunication 
should  be  the  penalty  of  disobedience.  At  the  same 
time,  he  wrote  to  nis  Italian  agents  in  England, 
charging  them  to  ensure  the  execution  of  his  orders, 
under  the  capacious  protection  of  the  non  obstante 
clause,  which  bowed  down  all  existing  usages  and 
canons  beneath  the  feet  of  the  existing  Pope.  The 
answer  of  Grostete,  of  which  the  following  is  the  sub- 
stance, would  alone  be  sufficient  to  immortalize  him. 
He  begins  by  declaring  his  entire  readiness  to  obey 
all  Apostolical  commands  with  reverent  and  filial  de- 
votion :  but  adds,  that,  out  of  pure  zeal  for  the  pater- 
nal honours  of  his  Holiness,  he  was,  likewise,  pre- 
pared to  resist  every  thing  which  might  be  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Apostolical  precepts.  Now,  of  all  the 
detestable  violations  of  those  precepts,  none  could 
possibly  be  worse,  than  to  deprive  the  souls  of  Chris- 
tian men  of  the  blessings  of  pastoral  ministration  : 
and  it  was  manifestly  impossible  that  the  Apostolic 
See  (to  whom  all  power  was  given,  not  for  destruc- 
tion, but  for  edification)  should  command  or  attempt 
any  thing  which  might  have  a  tendency  so  execrable, 
so  abominable,  and  so  pernicious  to  the  human  race. 
For  this  reason  it  was,  that  he  found  himself  under 
the  necessity  of  most  filially  and  obediently  disobeying 
and  resisting  the  requisitions,  contained  in  the  letters 
which  had  recently  been  addressed  to  him :  and,  ia 


INTRODUCTION.  81 

so  doing,  he  conceived  himself  to  he  very  far  from 
the  guilt  of  rebellion.  On  the  contrary,  in  this  very 
act  of  resistance,  he  was  hut  rendering  precisely  that 
measure  of  filial  reverence  and  honour,  which  was 
righteously  due  from  him  to  the  Apostolic  father.* — 
The  letter  of  Grostete,  however,  did  by  no  means 
reconcile  Innocent  to  this  sort  of  dutiful  disobedience. 
He  burst  out  into  violent  fury,  and  swore  by  Peter 
and  by  Paul,  that  he  was  well-nigh  resolved  to  make 
this  delirious  old  man  an  example  and  an  astonish- 
ment to  the  world.  Is  not  the  king  of  England — he 
exclaimed — my  vassal,  or  rather,  my  bond-slave? 
and  could  I  not,  by  a  single  word  to  him,  consign  this 
doting  priest  in  a  moment  to  imprisonment  and 
infamy  ? — And  from  this  paroxysm  the  Pontiff  was 
scarcely  recalled  by  the  remonstrances  of  his  Cardi- 
nals, who  were  sensible  of  the  danger  of  proceeding 
to  extremities  against  a  man  of  G-rosteie's  reputation 
for  piety  and  learning. 

The  wrath  of  the  Pontiff,  however,  was  fiercer 
than  the  words  of  his  wise  men.  The  sentence  of 
excommunication  went  forth  against  the  rebellious 
prelate :  and  the  result  was  fearfully  ominous  to  the 
majesty  of  Rome.  The  thunderbolt  fell  harmless  at 
the  feet  of  the  recusant;  and  Grostete  continued,  to 
the  end  of  his  days,  in  quiet  possession  of  his  dignity. 
Those  days,  indeed,  were  then  numbered.  At  the 
end  of  the  same  year,  he  was  seized  with  the  disorder 
which  terminated  all  his  conflicts  and  perturbations  : 
and,  next  to  the  prospects  of  a  better  world,  his  chief 
consolation  was,  to  pour  out  his  sorrows  into  the 
hearts  of  his  confidential  chaplains.  His  last  con- 
versations show  that  his  spiritual  vision  was  enlight- 
ened to  perceive,  that  the  whole  scheme  of  the  Papal 
government  was  enmity  with  God.  His  eyes  were, 
then  at  least,  widely  open  to  the  frightful  mischief  of 
the  Mendicant  institution ;  and  he  bitterly  deplored 

*  The  whole  of  the  letter  is  in  Matthew  Paris,  Anno  1253,  p.  749,  750, 


82  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

that  the  devotees  of  poverty  should  be  converted  into 
the  publicans  and  extortioners  of  the  Pope,  and  that 
the  vilest  secular  passions  should  lurk  beneath  the 
garb  of  humility  and  indigence.  But  the  burden  of 
his  lamentations  was,  the  positively  Anti- Christian 
character  of  the  Romish  hierarchy;  for,  by  what 
other  name,  he  asked,  but  that  of  Anti-Christ,  are  we 
to  designate  a  power  that  labours  to  destroy  the  souls 
which  Christ  came  to  save  and  to  redeem  ? — At  last 
the  spirit  of  prophecy  seemed  to  burst  upon  him,  and 
he  exclaimed,  that  nothing  but  the  edge  of  the  sword 
could  deliver  the  Church  from  this  Egyptian  Oct.  9. 
bondage.  In  the  midst  of  his  lamentations  1353. 
his  voice  failed  him;  and,  soon  after  he  expired.  His 
best  encomium  is  the  exultation  of  Innocent,  who, 
on  hearing  of  his  death,  exclaimed,  "I  rejoice,  and 
let  every  true  son  of  the  Church  rejoice  with  me,  that 
my  great  enemy  is  removed." 

The  position  taken  up  by  this  illustrious  Christian 
against  the  Papal  perversions  was  not,  it -will  be 
observed,  upon  purely  doctrinal  grounds.  His  vene- 
ration for  the  Apostolic  chair  was  deep  and  fervent, 
more  especially  in  the  earlier  period  of  his  life.  His 
complaint  was,  that  the  seat  of  unity  and  of  truth 
should  be  usurped  by  a  spirit,  which  was,  practically, 
adverse  to  the  truth,  and  which  converted  Christian 
unity  into  a  uniformity  of  servitude.  His  extant 
writings,  however,  are  sufficient  to  satisfy  us  that  the 
seeds  of  genuine  protestantism  were  in  his  heart. 
Thus  much  appears  to  be  confessed  by  a  recent  his- 
torian of  the  Church ;  who  yet  is  unwilling  to  allow 
that  he  was  in  possession  of  the  only  secret  which 
can  invest  a  Christian  with  the  peace  that  passeth 
understanding.  I  profess  myself  unable,  distinctly, 
to  comprehend  the  views  of  this  writer  respecting  the 
faith  of  Grostete.  He  tells  us  that,  "like  many  of 
the  best  divines  of  those  days,  this  Bishop  knew  not 
the  just  nature  of  the  Christian  article  of  justification 
by  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous :"  and  yet,  within  a 


INTRODUCTION.  83 

few  lines,  he  adds,  that  "  dependence  on  God,  as  a 
reconciled  Father  in  Christ  Jesus,  was  his  grand  prac- 
tical principle."*  But  without  stopping  to  reconcile 
these  statements,  we  may,  at  the  very  least,  confi- 
dently regard  this  extraordinary  man  as  a  noble 
representative  of  all  the  intelligence  and  piety  which, 
in  those  days,  began  to  array  themselves  against  the 
abuses  of  spiritual  power.  His  praise  is  written  in 
the  pages  of  an  honest  monk,  who,  though  supersti- 
tious in  his  devotion  to  the  Romish  supremacy,  has 
not  scrupled  to  describe  the  holy  Bishop  of  Lincoln 
as  "  the  open  rebuker  of  the  King  and  the  Pope,  the 
reprover  of  prelates,  the  corrector  of  monks,  the 
director  of  presbyters,  the  instructor  of  the  clergy, 
the  supporter  of  scholars,  the  preacher  to  the  people, 
the  prosecutor  of  the  dissolute,  the  diligent  searcher 
of  the  Scriptures,!  and  the  hammer  of  the  Romanists, 
who  were  objects  of  his  contempt."  And,  in  another 
place,  he  observes  that  the  harshest  measures  of  the 
Bishop  against  the  religious  houses  were,  probably, 
dictated  by  a  regard  to  the  welfare  of  the  souls  com- 
mitted to  his  charge.  It  further  appears  that  his 
religion,  though  profound,  was  far  from  repulsive  and 
morose.  "  His  hospitable  board  was  graced  by  libe- 
rality and  abundance,  by  cheerfulness  and  affability. 
His  spiritual  table  was  'furnished  forth'  with  the 
stores  of  fervent  devotion,  and  contrition  even  to  tears. 
In  his  exercise  of  the  episcopal  office  he  was  venera- 
ble, laborious,  and  unAvearied."| 

It  is  truly  remarkable  that  the  obsequies  of  Grostete 
were  respectfully  attended,  not  only  by  the  secular, 
but  even  by  the  regular  clergy  of  his  diocese.  It  is 
still  more  remarkable,  that  after  the  manner  of  those 
times,  his  memory  has  been  honoured  by  legendary 

*  Milner's  Church  History,  vol.  iv.  p.  60,  61. 

t  "  Scripturarum  diver sarum, "  are  the  words  of  Matthew  Paris,  p. 
754,  intimating,  most  probably,  that  the  Bishop  had  examined  the  whole 
range  ot'tlie  Scriptures ;  a  rare  commendation  in  those  days. 

j  Matthew  Palis,  p.  754. 


84  LIFE    OF  WICLIF. 

prodigies,  such  as  are  usually  produced  to  attest  the 
sanctity  of  the  faithful  champions  of  the  Church.  It 
is  gravely  related  by  Matthew  Paris,  that  the  Bishop 
of  London,  then  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  episco- 
pal palace  of  Buckden,  was  suddenly  surprised  by  a 
strain  of  ravishing  melody,  which  however,  was  un- 
heard by  his  attendants ;  and  that  the  time  at  which 
this  celestial  music  saluted  him,  turned  out,  on  in- 
quiry, to  be  the  precise  hour  of  the  decease  of  his 
brother  of  Lincoln.  He  also  informs  us,  that  about 
the  same  hour,  certain  Minorite  friars,  who  were 
wandering  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  had  lost  their 
way,  were  astonished  by  the  solemn  chime  of  bells, 
so  clear  and  distinct,  that,  when  the  morning  came, 
they  eagerly  inquired  the  occasion  of  it.  Nothing 
of  the  kind  had  been  heard  in  the  neighbourhood; 
but,  on  their  arrival  at  Buckden,  it  appeared  that,  at 
that  very  time,  the  Bishop  was  breathing  his  last.* 

But  it  would  have  required  an  army  of  men  like 
Grostete  to  retard  the  accumulation  of  Papal  abuse, 
during  a  long  and  feeble  reign  like  that  of  Henry  III. 
The  vigour  of  Henry's  successor,  Edward  I.,  was  dis- 
played in  harassing  and  insulting  his  clergy,  by  the 
most  arbitrary  exactions;  which  he  carried  into  ef- 
fect, in  defiance  of  the  bull  of  Boniface  VIII.,  forbid- 
ding any  contribution  of  the  Church  to  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  State  without  his  express  permission.  His 
measures,  therefore,  would  naturally  produce  any 

*  In  addition  to  these  wonders,  a  great  posthumous  exploit  has  been 
ascribed  to  Grostete.  It  is  said  that  Innocent  IV.  was  meditating  an  order 
to  the  king  of  England  for  disinterring  the  accursed  remains  of  his  inve- 
terate adversary :  but  that  the  Bishop  appeared  to  him  by  night,  in  his 
full  episcopal  habit,  and  with  a  terrific  countenance  and  menacing  voice, 
rebuked  the  Pontiff  for  his  vindictive  and  most  unchristian  design.  And 
not  content  with  this,  he  inflicted  with  his  staff  so  heavy  a  blow  upon  his 
side,  that  his  Holiness  roared  with  anguish,  and  never  recovered  from 
the  effects  of  the  chastisement.  These  stories  are,  of  course,  about  as 
valuable  as  other  coin  of  the  same  mintage.  They  are,  however,  not 
altogether  worthless  for  our  purpose.  They  prove,  at  least,  that,  in  that 
age,  an  intrepid  resistance  to  Romish  profligacy  was  not  sufficient  to  forfeit 
the  veneration  even  of  monks :  and  the  last  of  them,  perhaps,  may  show 
the  terrors  which  integrity  and  courage  could  inflict  upon  the  conscience 
of  an  unprincipled  tyrant. 


INTRODUCTION.  85 

effect,  rather  than  that  of  encouraging,  among  eccle- 
siastics, a  spirit  of  disaffection  to  the  Roman  see. 
And  it  is  worthy  of  observation,  that,  distinguished 
as  he  was  for  energy  and  wisdom,  he  never  could 
summon  fortitude  enough  to  discontinue  the  shame- 
ful tribute,  which  had  been  imposed  by  John,  and 
which,  during  the  whole  time  of  Henry  III.,  had  been 
remitted  to  Rome  with  infamous  punctuality.  The 
miserable  reign  of  Edward  II.  is  almost  a  nullity  in 
the  history  of  the  Church ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
days  of  Edward  III.,  that  this  badge  of  vassalage  was 
shaken  off,  and  legislative  provision  made  against  the 
systematic  encroachments  of  the  Papacy.  We  are 
now  approaching  to  the  days  of  Wiclif ;  but  before  his 
introduction,  it  will  be  necessary  to  detain  the  read- 
er, for  a  moment,  in  order  to  present  to  his  attention 
the  two  illustrious  names  of  Bradwardine  and  Fitz- 
ralph;  the  latter  of  whom  was  an  object  of  the  deep- 
est veneration  with  our  Reformer. 

Bradwardine  was  one  of  those  humble  and  con- 
templative spirits,  whose  lives  exhibit  to  a  corrupt 
World  an  image  of  almost  celestial  serenity  and 
peace.  It  is  true  that  he  acted  as  confessor  and  con- 
fidential chaplain  to  Edward,  in  his  warlike  expedi- 
tions. But  it  is  also  true  that,  in  this  office,  he 
laboured,  faithfully  and  nobly,  to  mitigate,  by  the 
precepts  of  the  Gospel,  the  atrocities  of 

Contumelious,  beastly,  mad-brained  war : 

and  the  most  glorious  testimony  to  his  services  is  to 
be  found  in  the  professed  belief  of  some  writers  of  the 
period  in  question,  that  the  signal  victories  of  the 
chivalrous  king  are  to  be  ascribed,  rather  to  the  vir- 
tue and  sanctity  of  his  chaplain,  than  to  the  gallantry 
or  genius  either  of  the  monarch  or  his  captains.  It 
is  further  most  honourable  to  his  memory,  that  he 
had  the  courage  to  oppose  the  mild  genius  of  the  Gos- 
pel to  the  martial  impetuosity  of  his  royal  master, 
and  to  remind  him,  in  the  flush  of  victory,  that 


86  LIFE    OF    WICLIF. 

"  cursed  is  he  who  maketh  flesh  his  aim,  and  whose 
heart  departeth  from  the  Lord."  Equally  honoura- 
ble it  was  to  the  monarch  himself,  that  his  venera- 
tion and  attachment  were  only  strengthened  by  the 
holy  freedom  and  faithfulness  of  his  chaplain.  When 
the  primacy  became  vacant,  the  monks  of  Canter- 
bury chose  Bradwardine  as  archbishop :  but  Edward 
was  unable  to  part  with  his  spiritual  counsellor; 
and,  for  this  reason  only,  refused  to  confirm  their 
election.  On  a  second  vacancy,  their  choice  again 
fell  upon  him,  and  then  the  king  acquiesced.  Brad- 
wardine, accordingly,  travelled  to  Avignon,  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  the  Papal  consecration  to  his 
office ;  and  there,  the  extreme  simplicity  of  his  ap- 
pearance and  deportment  exposed  him  to  the  derision 
of  that  frivolous  and  worldly  court,  and  provoked  an 
act  of  unmannerly  and  heartless  insultr  One  Car- 
dinal Hugh,  a  nephew  of  the  Pontiff,  imagined  that 
he  should  amuse  and  gratify  the  servile  crowd,  by 
introducing  into  the  hall  a  person,  habited  like  a 
peasant,  and  seated  on  an  ass,  with  a  petition  to  the 
Pope  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  appoint  him  to  the 
see  of  Canterbury.  But,  on  this  occasion,  it  is  pleas- 
ing to  observe,  that  sanctity  and  innocence,  were 
triumphant  in  the  very  haunts  of  profligacy  and  folly. 
It  was  felt,  even  there,  that  a  man  like  Bradwardine, 
was  immeasurably  beyond  the  reach  of  vulgar  inso- 
lence and  levity.  The  Pope  and  his  Cardinals,  to 
their  credit  be  it  spoken,  resented  the  indignity  offered 
to  this  eminent  churchman;  and  the  miserable  jest 
brought  confusion  only  on  the  head  of  its  contriver. 
Bradwardine  was  consecrated  at  Lambeth,  in  1349  : 
but  yet  he  can  scarcely  be  numbered  on  the  catalogue 
of  our  prelates ;  for  no  sooner  was  he  seated  in  his 
dignity,  than  he  was  removed,  as  we  may  humbly 
presume,  to  that  blessedness,  of  which  his  walk  on 
earth  was,  to  all  appearance,  one  continued  antepast, 
He  expired  only  seven  days  after  his  consecration ; 
and  he  is  now  known  to  us,  not  as  the  primate  of 


INTRODUCTION.  87 

England,  but  as  the  champion  of  "  the  cause  of  God 
against  Pelagius."  The  error  of  that  heresiarch,  was 
undoubtedly,  most  perilous  :  for  it  denied  that  there 
is  in  our  nature,  "  an  original  taint,  an  innate  and 
congenital  disease,  to  the  existence  of  which,  the 
heart  of  every  one,  who  dares  look  into  his  own, 
bears  an  unwilling,  but  unerring,  testimony."  His 
dread  of  this  perversion,  may  have  impelled  Brad- 
wardine  to  too  close  an  agreement  with  the  great 
adversary  of  Pelagius.  But,  notwithstanding  this,  it 
still  is  undeniable  that  he  was  one  of  those,  who,  in 
times  of  gross  spiritual  ignorance,  walked  and  re- 
joiced in  a  light,  which  the  surrounding  darkness 
was  unable  to  comprehend. 

From  the  accounts  which  have  been  preserved  to 
us  of  this  extraordinary  man,  it  would  appear,  that 
his  genius  naturally  prompted  him  to  the  pursuit  of 
severe  and  exact  science.  His  proficiency  in  the 
scholastic  learning,  procured  him  the  title  of  the 
Profound  Doctor ;  but  in  addition  to  this,  his  mathe- 
matical attainments  were  of  the  highest  order,  for 
the  age  in  which  he  lived.  His  works  on  geometry 
and  arithmetic  are  in  print ;  and  he  compiled  astro- 
nomical tables,  which  have  never  been  published,  but 
which  were  possessed,  in  manuscript,  by  his  biogra- 
pher Sir  Henry  Saville.  The  discipline  which  his 
intellect  underwent  in  the  prosecution  of  these  stu- 
dies, strongly  manifests  itself  in  his  theological 
writings.  His  great  work  against  Pelagianism,  is 
described  to  us  "  one  regular  connected  series  of 
reasoning,  from  principles  or  conclusions  demon- 
strated before ;"  and  if  ever  he  fails  in  the  process 
of  strict  demonstration,  the  defect  is  rather  to  be  as- 
cribed to  the  nature  of  the  subject,  than  to  the  remiss- 
ness  or  incapacity  of  the  author.  But  the  most  ad- 
mirable peculiarity  of  his  mind  is  this, — that  his 
habitual  rigour  of  inquiry,  never  appears  to  have 
impaired  the  humility  of  his  temper,  or  the  warmth 
of  his  affections.  His  heart  seems  to  have  been, 


88  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

throughout,  quite  as  vividly  at  work,  as  his  under- 
standing. Thoroughly  furnished,  as  he  was,  with 
all  the  mental  accomplishments  of  his  age,  every 
thought  of  his  was  evidently  brought  into  captivity  to 
the  wisdom  and  righteousness  of  God.  It  is  matter 
of  unspeakable  refreshment  and  edification  to  hear 
the  profound  geometer  and  schoolman  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  expressing  his  grateful  devotion  to 
the  Father  of  mercies,  in  such  words  as  these: 
"  How  intense  and  how  unbounded  is  Thy  love  to 
me,  O  Lord!  Whereas,  my  love,  how  feeble  and 
remiss ! — my  gratitude,  how  cold  and  how  inconstant ! 
Far  be  it  from  Thee  that  Thy  love  should  resemble 
mine  !  O  Thou,  who  fillest  heaven  and  earth,  why 

fillest  Thou  not  this  narrow  heart  ? Most 

gracious  Lord,  by  Thy  love  Thou  has  prevented  me, 
wretch  that  I  am,  who  had  no  love  for  Thee,  but 
was  at  enmity  with  my  Maker  and  Redeemer.  I 
see,  Lord,  that  it  is  easy  to  say  and  write  these  things, 
but  very  difficult  to  execute  them.  Do  Thou,  there- 
fore, to  whom  nothing  is  difficult,  grant  that  I  may 
more  easily  practise  these  things  with  my  heart, 

than  utter  them  with  my  lips Thou,  who 

preventest  Thy  servants  with  Thy  gracious  love, 
whom  dost  Thou  not  elevate  with  the  hope  of  finding 
Thee  ?  And  what  canst  Thou  deny  to  him  who 
loves  Thee,  who  is  in  need,  and  who  supplicates 
Thine  aid  ?  Suffer  me,  I  pray,  to  reason  with  Thy 
majestic  goodness,  that  my  hope  may  be  enlarged. 
It  is  not  the  manner,  even  of  human  friendship,  to 
r elect  a  needy  friend,  especially  when  the  ability  to 
relieve  is  abundant." 

It  has  already  been  intimated  that  his  theology,  in 
a  great  measure,  derived  its  complexion  from  the 
spirit  of  Augustine,  the  mighty  antagonist  of  Pela- 
gius.  But  well  would  it  have  been  for  the  Christian 
world,  if  all  the  followers  of  Augustine  had  imbibed 
from  his  writings  a  temper  as  meek  and  humble  as 
that  of  Bradwardine  !  A  predestinarian,  in  theory, 


INTRODUCTION.  89 

he  undoubtedly  was.  But  what  was  the  practical 
efficacy  of  this  ingredient  in  his  divinity  ?  We  may 
read  the  answer  to  this  question  in  the  following 
words : — "  Why  do  we  fear  to  preach  the  doctrine  of 
predestination  of  saints,  and  of  the  genuine  grace 
of  God  ?  Is  there  any  cause  to  dread,  lest  man 
should  be  induced  to  despair  of  his  condition,  when 
his  hope  is  demonstrated  to  be  founded  on  God  alone? 
Is  there  not  much  stronger  reason  for  him  to  despair, 
if,  in  pride  and  unbelief,  he  founds  his  hope  of  salva- 
tion on  himself?"  Whatever  may  be  the  merits  of 
the  predestinarian  doctrine,  as  tried  by  the  princi- 
ples of  sound  philosophy,  or  by  the  language  of 
Scripture,  one  thing,  at  least,  is  certain, — that  the 
Church  might  regard  it  with  comparative  tranquillity, 
if  its  fruits  had  always  been  as  mildly  flavoured,  as 
those  which  it  produced  in  the  good  and  honest  heart 
of  this  holy  man  !  Uncharitable  austerity,  and  spi- 
ritual arrogance,  are  the  plants  which  are  apt  to 
thrive  in  the  soil  of  what  is  now  called  Calvinism. 
But  this  was  a  growth  which  could  not  live  in  the 
soul  of  such  a  being  as  Bradwardine. 

As  an  adversary  of  Pelagius,  he  denounced  the 
freedom  of  the  human  will ;  but  it  is  obvious,  after 
aP,  that  his  warfare,  in  reality,  is  not  against  the 
perfect  free  agency,  but  against  the  self-sufficiency, 
of  man.  It  was  much  the  fashion  of  that  age  to 
question  the  necessity  of  a  preventive  grace.  The 
spiritual  influences  of  God,  it  was  imagined,  were  to 
be  earned  by  works  positively  meritorious,  or  by  tem- 
pers and  dispositions,  which  might  duly  render  the 
man  an  object  of  Divine  favour  ;  so  that  our  nature 
might,  either  be  invested,  as  it  were,  with  a  strict 
legal  title  to  the  benefit ;'  or,  if  not,  at  least,  with  a 
sort  of  equitable  claim  to  it,  which  the  bountiful 
goodness  of  the  Deity  would  by  no  means  resist. 
Ibondignity  was  the  term  invented  by  the  schools  to 
indicate  the  higher  of  these  two  moral  conditions ; 
the  lower  was  denoted  by  the  word  congruity.  In  the 


90  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

one  case,  the  man  is  actually  worthy  of  the  grace  of 
God ;  in  the  other,  he  is  fitly  prepared  for  its  reception. 
These  fancies  were,  both  of  them,  repudiated  and 
condemned  by  Bradwardine ;  as  they  are,  at  this  day, 
by  our  own  Church.  According  to  our  theology,  the 
fittest  preparation  for  the  influences  of  the  Spirit  of 
holiness,  is  a  contrite  acknowledgment  of  our  own 
umvorthincss.  "  The  meritorious  dignity  of  doing 
well,  we  utterly  renounce  ;"*  for  it  invests  man  with 
the  right  to  bargain  with  his  Maker.  The  notion  of 
congruity  we,  as  decidedly,  reject ;  for,  as  Bradwar- 
dine observes,  it  represents  the  Holy  One  as  disposing 
of  his  favours  for  a  cheap  and  vile  consideration. 
And  the  practical  result  is,  that,  on  the  one  hand,  we 
are  to  labour  for  the  grace  of  God  as  urgently  as  if 
our  own  deeds  could  purchase  or  procure  it :  and,  on 
the  other,  to  acknowledge  that  our  enjoyment  of  the 
gift,  yea,  and  our  power  to  labour  for  it,  are  solely  to 
be  ascribed  to  his  gratuitous  mercy. 

Bradwardine,  like  many  other  pious  and  admirable 
Catholics,  is  an  illustrious  instance,  to  show  that  ge» 
nuine  scriptural  religion  might  grow  up,  unmolested, 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Romish  Church,  even  in  the  sea- 
son of  its  deepest  corruption.  Devout  and  thought- 
ful scholars,  like  him,  were  not  the  men  whorn, 
the  Papal  Church  either  feared  or  hated.  The  genius 
of  ardent  inquiry  gave  no  uneasiness  to  her,  so  long 
as  it  was  confined  in  the  imprisonment  of  ponderous 
tomes.  But  if  ever  the  mystic  vessel  that  contained 
it  was  unsealed,  so  that  the  captive  spirit  could  go 
forth,  and  freely  embody  itself  before  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  world,  alarm  and  displeasure  were  instantly 
spread  throughout  her  ranks ;  and  the  most  direful 
spells  were  instantly  employed  to  conjure  back  the 
restless  power  to  its  confinement.  The  terrors  or 
the  glories  of  martyrdom  were  reserved  for  men  who 
stepped  out  of  their  cloistered  retirement,  to  "  the 

•  Hooker. 


INTRODUCTION.  91 

dust  and  heat "  of  an  open  conflict  against  the  adver- 
sary of  man's  improvement ;  and  of  this  stamp,  un- 
doubtedly, was  Richard  Fitzralph.  This  eminent 
-confessor  was  bred  at  Oxford,  and  was  promoted  by 
Edward  III.  to  the  archbishopric  of  Armagh.  His 
residence  in  the  University  had  given  him  abundant 
opportunities  of  observing  the  mischief  and  confusion 
occasioned  by  the  predominance  of  the  Mendicant 
orders.  These  fraternities  had  been  called  into  ex- 
istence more  than  a  century  before.  It  had  been 
perceived  by  the  court  of  Rome  that  both  the  monk- 
ish and  secular  clergy  had,  in  a  great  measure,  lost 
ithe  confidence  of  the  people,  and  that  a  new  institu- 
tion would  be  needful  for  the  preservation  of  her  own 
•influence  and  dominion.  We  shall  have  occasion  to 
advert  hereafter,  somewhat  more  particularly,  to  the 
/ise,  the  progress,  and  the  degeneracy  of  the  Mendi- 
^ants.  At  present,  it  may  be  sufficient  to  observe, 
tfhat  the  indignation  of  Richard  Fitzralph  was  deeply 
rmoyed  by  the  calamitous  effects  of  their  influence 
on  the  University  of  Oxford.  Not  content  with  a 
pertinacious  intrusion  into  academic  offices,  their 
restless  and  usurping  spirit  invaded  the  peace  of 
private  families.  They  spared  no  pains  to  seduce 
into  their  own  ranks  the  most  promising  students ; 
and  such  was  their  success,  that  parents  at  last  be- 
came fearful  of  sending  their  sons  to  the  Universities, 
lest  they  should,  eventually,  be  consigned  to  a  life  of 
wandering  beggary.  The  consequence  of  this  alarm 
was,  that  within  the  recollection  of  Fitzralph  him- 
self, the  number  of  students  had  been  reduced  from 
30,000  to  6,000.  He  was,  accordingly,  prepared  for 
any  opportunity  of  helping  to  suppress  this  enormous 
evil :  and  being  accidentally  in  London  at  a  time  when 
the  encroachments  of  these  orders  had  roused  the 
opposition  of  the  clergy  of  that  city,  he  engaged  in  the 
conflict  against  them  with  so  much  cordiality  and 
vigour,  that  he  was  summoned  by  them  to  answer 
their  appeal  at  Avignon.  On  this  occasion  his  for- 


92  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

titude  did  not  desert  him.  To  the  very  face  of  Inno- 
cent VI.  and  his  assembled  Cardinals,  he  maintained 
boldly,  and  at  great  length,  his  conclusions  against 
the  friars :  and,  among  other  things,  he  charged  them 
with  hearing  the  confessions  of  professed  nuns, 
without  the  license  of  their  superiors,  and  of  mar- 
ried women  without  the  knowledge  of  their  husbands. 
From  this  period,  the  remainder  of  his  life  appears 
to  have  been  a  constant  scene  of  hardship  and  dan- 
ger ;  and,  if  we  are  to  give  implicit  credit  to  old  Fox, 
Providence  was  incessantly,  and  often  miraculously, 
at  work  for  his  deliverance.  His  persecutors  repeat- 
edly met  him  in  the  open  streets,  in  broad  day-light, 
and  yet  they  had  no  eyes  to  see  him,  or  no  hands  to 
apprehend  him.  He  tell  frequently  among  thieves, 
but  the  money  he  lost  was  always  restored  to  him 
again,  by  portions,  in  time  of  his  necessity  and  famine. 
The  sea-ports  were  often  filled  with  officers  who  were 
instructed  to  lie  in  wait  for  him  ;  and  yet  their  acti- 
vity and  watchfulness  were  in  vain.  But  by  far  the 
most  important  of  his  deliverances  was  that,  by  which 
he  had  been  extricated  from  "  the  profound  vanities  of 
Aristotle's  subtilty,  and  brought  to  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures  of  God."  The  above  account  is  given  us 
by  the  martyrologist,  as  derived  from  a  certain  manu- 
script prayer  or  confession  of  Fitzralph's,  in  which 
the  whole  history  of  his  life  is  described.  The  true 
version  of  it  evidently  is,  that  his  latter  days  were 
grievously  imbittered  by  persecution,  but  that  if  his 
enemies  sought  his  life,  their  malice  was  defeated. 
After  passing  seven  or  eight  years  in  painful  and 
dangerous  exile,  he  expired  at  Avignon;  and  was 
honoured,  in  his  death,  by  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
certain  Cardinal,  that,  on  that  day,  a  mighty  pillar  of 
Christ's  Church  was  fallen. 

This  is  the  substance  of  what  is  known  respecting 
Archbishop  Fitzralph.  Of  the  general  complexion  of 
his  religious  feelings  and  opinions  we  may  safely 
judge  from  the  opening  words  of  the  prayer  or  con- 


INTRODUCTION.  93 

fession  above  alluded  to,  and  which  have  been  pre- 
served to  us  by  Fox,  in  the  original  Latin :  "  To 
Thee  be  praise,  glory,  and  thanksgiving,  0  Jesus 
most  holy,  most  powerful,  most  precious  ;  Thou  who 
hast  said,  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life.  A  way 
without  error,  truth  without  a  cloud,  and  life  without 
end.  For  Thou  Thyself  hast  shown  me  the  way — 
Thou  Thyself  hast  taught  me  the  truth — and  Thou 
Thyself  hast  promised  me  the  life.  Thou  wast  my 
way  in  exile — my  truth  in  counsel — and  Thou  wilt 
be  my  life  in  reward."*  Years  of  anxiety  and  ban- 
ishment, as  we  have  seen  were  the  earthly  recom- 
pense of  this  holy  prelate :  but  we  may  reasonably 
presume  that,  to  the  last,  he  persevered  inflexibly  in 
the  way,  with  unshaken  constancy  defended  the  truth, 
and  with  pious  hope  looked  onward  to  the  life ! 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  genuine 
spirit  of  Christianity  was  by  no  means  extinct  in  our 
land,  even  in  those  seasons  when  the  signs  of  anima- 
tion were  the  most  languid.  The  breath  and  the 
pulse  of  life  were  still  to  be  discerned.  Though  the 
whole  head  was  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint,  the 
vitals  were  not  fatally  invaded.  There  was  clearly 
hope  for  those  who  would  devote  themselves,  in  the 
spirit  of  love  and  faith,  to  the  office  of  rekindling  the 
spark,  and  causing  the  heart  to  beat  once  more  with 
a  vigorous  and  healthy  movement.  It  must,  how- 
ever, be  confessed,  that  the  task  was  one  which  re- 
quired an  almost  superhuman  combination  of  activity 
and  skill.  For  the  misfortune  was,  that  the  truth 
had,  for  the  most  part,  retired  to  the  strong  holds  of 
religious  and  contemplative  retirement :  and  its  action 
there  was  scarcely  powerful  enough  to  keep  up  the 
moral  circulation  throughout  the  social  mass,  and  to 
preserve  its  extremities  from  all  the  symptoms  of  a 
mortal  decay.  There  is  little  reason  to  believe  that 
the  lower  classes,  or  even  the  middling  orders,  (if 

•  Fox,  464-472. 


94  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

any  such  orders  could  then  be  said  to  exist,)  had  the 
means  of  coming  even  to  a  partial  knowledge  of  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  One  dubious  pre-eminence 
our  country,  indeed,  seems  to  have  enjoyed  for  several 
centuries.  She  was  singularly  exempt  from  the  sus- 
picion of  heresy,  and  is  occasionally  complimented 
by  the  Pontiffs  for  the  distinguished  purity  of  her 
faith.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Second,  it  is  true, 
a  small  band  of  foreigners,  not  more  than  thirty  in 
number,  had  settled  in  England,  and  had  brought 
with  them  various  strange  and  extravagant  opinions, 
such  as  the  rejection  of  the  sacraments,  and  of  the 
ordinance  of  matrimony.  They  are  supposed  to  have 
belonged  to  the  sect,  known  by  the  name  of  Cathari, 
which  was  then  numerous  and  active  in  the  north  of 
Italy,  and  in  Germany.  Their  leader  was  one  Ge- 
rard; and  if  their  object  was  to  disseminate  their 
doctrines,  their  success  assuredly  was  such,  as  to 
justify  the  commendations  bestowed  by  the  Popes  on 
the  inaptitude  of  our  country  for  the  entertainment 
of  heretical  notions.  The  only  fruit  of  their  mission- 
ary labours  was  one  solitary  female,  who  abjured  her 
new  profession  as  soon  as  it  became  dangerous.  The 
demeanour  of  these  people  was  inoffensive,  and  their 
personal  habits  blameless.  But  their  opinions  soon 
became  notorious,  and  exposed  them  to  the  severity 
of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  By  the  authority  of  the 
king  they  were  summoned  before  a  synod  of  bishops. 
To  arguments  they  replied,  that  their  duty  was  to  be- 
lieve and  not  to  dispute ;  to  menaces,  that  our  Lord 
had  said,  "  Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted  for 
righteousness'  sake."  The  judges,  wearied  out,  as 
Br.  Lingard  informs  us,  by  their  obstinacy*  consigned 
them  over  to  the  secular  arm,  by  which  they  were 
branded  on  the  forehead,  stripped  to  the  waist,  and 
whipped  through  the  city  of  Oxford,  where  the  synod 
was  held.  According  to  one  account  they  were 

*  Ling.  ii.  42tt 


INTRODUCTION.  95 

turned  out  to  perish  miserably,  in  utter  destitution  of 
raiment,  shelter,  or  sustenance  !  These,  we  are  told, 
were  the  first  heretics  ever  seen  in  England,  since  the 
Saxon  invasion.  The  second,  and,  so  far  as  we  are 
informed,  the  last  adventure  of  the  same  kind,  occur- 
red in  the  reign  of  John,  when  certain  sectaries,  by 
the  name  of  Albigenses,  arrived  in  this  country,  some 
of  whom,  as  Knighton*  concisely  informs  us,  were 
burned  alive. 

Either  by  these  merciless  severities,  or  by  other 
causes  the  realm  of  England  seems  to  have  been 
nearly  separated  from  all  communion  with  that 
restless  spirit  of  innovation,  which  had  long  been 
wandering  over  the  European  continent.  But  the 
absence  of  fanaticism  was  but  a  poor  compensation 
for  the  want  of  every  thing  like  sound  religious  in- 
struction. Many  bright  examples  may,  doubtless,  be 
found  in  our  ecclesiastical  annals,  of  sincere  devotion, 
extensive  learning,  and  fervid  zeal,  among  the  pre- 
lates and  clergy  of  th'at  age.  But,  had  all  our  pri- 
mates and  bishops,  during  the  period  in  question,, 
combined  the  vigour  and  activity  of  Grostete  with 
the  enlightened  piety  of  Bradwardine,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  they  could  have  sent  forth  an  influence 
powerful  enough  to  reach  the  general  mass  of  the 
population.  A  dreary  gulf  was  fixed  between  the 
lordly  barons,  and  their  degraded  vassals.  Hopeless 
degradation  appears  to  have  been  the  inheritance  of 
the  peasantry;  and  nothing  but  the  charity  which 
is  strong  as  death,  could  be  sufficient  to  encounter  the 
resistance  of  their  obdurate  ignorance,  and  almost 
desperate  wretchedness.  It  was  even  questioned,  in 
those  times,  whether  a  villain  could  be  admitted  into 
heaven ;  and  nothing,  most  certainly,  could  be  better 
adapted  to  render  him  unfit  for  such  admission,  than 
the  prevalence  of  so  brutalizing  a  suspicion.  That 

*  Knighton,  2418.  No  mention  of  this  fact  is  to  be  found  in  Matthew 
Paris,  who,  nevertheless,  gives  a  hideous  picture  of  the  impiety  of  the 
Albigenses.  Anno,  1213. 


96  LIFE    OF  WICLIF. 

the  generality  of  the  priesthood,  whether  monastic  or 
secular,  were  utterly  unfit  for  the  office  of  preparing 
their  people  for  the  hour  of  death,  or  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, is  beyond  all  question.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  Archbishop  Peckham  vehe- 
mently denounces  the  "  ignorance,  folly,  and  gross- 
ness"  of  the  clergy.  He  complains,  that  those  places 
which  most  urgently  needed  instruction,  were  never 
so  much  as  visited  ;  so  that  the  words  of  the  prophet 
were  calamitously  verified — the  children  asked  for 
bread,  and  there  was  none  to  break  it  unto  them:  the 
poor  and  destitute  cried  for  water p,  and  their  tongue  was 
parched  up.  In  order  to  remedy  this  crying  scandal, 
ne  commanded  that  each  parochial  clergyman  should 
preach  to  his  people,  either  by  himself  or  a  substitute,, 
once,  at  least,  in  every  quarter  of  a  year ;  and  should 
expound  to  them  in  a  popular  manner,  "  without  any; 
fantastic  texture  of  subtility,"  the  fourteen  articles  01 
faith,  the  ten  commandments,  the  twofold  precept  of 
love  to  God  and  our  neighbour,  the  seven  works  of 
charity,  the  seven  capital  sins  with  their  progeny? 
the  seven  principal  virtues,  and  the  seven  sacraments 
of  grace.  And  lest  the  clergy  should  convert  their 
own  ignorance  into  a  dispensation  from  this  order,, 
he  adds  a  variety  of  instructions  for  the  proper  dis- 
charge of  the  duty  enjoined,  which  convey,  of  them^ 
selves,  a  bitter  rebuke  to  the  incompetency  of  the 
spiritual  guides.*  All  this  while,  the  people  were  left 
not  only  without  the  Scriptures,  but  almost  without 
devotional  helps  of  any  kind,  in  any  degree  adapted 
to  their  wants.  What  benefit  could  they  derive  from 
the  volumes  of  Anselm,  or  of  Grostete  ?  How  were 

*  Constitutions  Johannis  Peckham  Archiep.  Cantuar.  Wilk.  Cone.  vol. 
ii.  p.  54 — 56.  There  is  something  curious  in  the  Archbishop's  instruc- 
tions relative  to  extreme  unction.  He  recommends  that  this  sacrament 
should  be  administered  even  to  those  who  may  be  labouring  under 
phrensy,  or  any  sort  of  mental  alienation,  provided  that  the  party  had, 
before  his  seizure,  expressed  any  concern  for  his  salvation;  having,  as 
he  tells  us,  found  from  experience,  that  the  receiving  of  this  rile  would 
either  procure  the  sufferer  a  lucid  interval)  or  at  least  be,  in  some  way, 
instrumental  to  his  spiritual  benefit. 


INTRODUCTION.  97 

their  spiritual  thirst  and  famine  to  be  relieved  by- 
Archbishop  Edmund's  Speculum  Ecclesia,  or  Brad- 
wardine's  assault  upon  the  heresy  of  Pelagius  ?  The 
earlier  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  indeed,  was  me- 
morable for  the  spirit  with  which  the  English  lan- 
guage began  to  be  cultivated.  Such  of  the  clergy  as  had 
leisure  or  taste  for  the  occupation,  frequently  addicted 
themselves  to  poetry,  and  occasionally  infused  into 
their  compositions  much  of  a  serious  and  devotional 
character.  Among  these,  Rolle,  the  hermit  of  Ham- 
pole,  has  earned  for  himself  an  honourable  name; 
and  he  still  more  amply  merited  the  gratitude  of  his 
countrymen  by  translating  the  psalms  and  hymns  of 
the  Church  into  English  prose,  and  by  adding  a  com- 
mentary to  each  verse.  Various  other  portions  of 
the  Scriptures  appear  to  have  been,  from  time  to 
time,  translated  by  intelligent  and  pious  clergymen, 
for  the  use  of  their  respective  congregations :  but,  on 
the  whole,  it  is  quite  indisputable,  that  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  nothing  had  been  done  of  sufficient 
efficacy  to  make  any  considerable  impression  on  the 
gross  spiritual  ignorance  of  the  British  population. 

The  case,  therefore,  as  regards  the  religious  condi- 
tion of  the  people  of  England,  at  the  time  of  Wiclif 's 
appearance,  seems  to  have  been  simply  this.  The 
license  of  opinion,  which  had  spread  itself  over  many 
parts  of  Christendom,  had  scarcely  approached  them. 
They  were,  almost  wholly,  untainted  with  any  doc- 
trinal heresy,*  and  little  in  the  habit  of  opposing  the 

*  This  statement  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  taken  in  its  utmost  latitude. 
Heretical  opinions  would,  doubtless,  be  occasionally  creeping  in.  For 
instance,  we  find  that  a  synod  was  held  at  London  by  Archbishop  Peck- 
ham,  in  1286,  for  the  purpose  of  condemning  certain  articles,  which  had 
recently  been  maintained  in  the  province  of  Canterbury,  relative  to  the 
sacramental  mystery.  The  positions  in  question,  however,  were  not  of 
a  nature  which  was  very  likely  to  recommend  them  much  to  the  public 
attention.  They  involved  several  questions  of  great  scholastic  nicety ; 
and  they  who  contended  for  them  are  described  as  persons  actuated 
solely  by  a  vain-glorious  passion  for  novelties.  They  did  not  assail  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  though  they  represented  it  in  a  manner 
somewhat  different  from  the  orthodox  verity.  The  most  formidable  of 
these  articles  was  the  seventh,  which  .affirmed  that,  in  this  question,  men 


98  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

spiritual  supremacy  of  Rome.  Throughout  all  ranks, 
however,  it  had  been  more  or  less  deeply  felt,  that 
her  power  had  frequently  been  exercised  in  a  spirit 
of  intolerable  arrogance  and  rapacity;  and  it  was 
likewise  known  that  the  sword  of  temporal  and  spirit- 
ual dominion  had  been  often  wielded  with  atrocious 
severity,  by  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  against  those 
who  questioned  or  resisted  his  authority.  The  exac- 
tions and  usurpations  of  the  Pontifical  court  could 
be  readily  estimated  by  those,  who  were  profoundly 
indifferent  to  her  aberrations  from  the  primitive  purity 
of  faith ;  and  the  exterminating  fury  with  which  she 
had  smitten  her  adversaries,  must  have  begun  to 
raise  up  certain  misgivings,  as  to  the  legitimacy  of 
that  power,  which  could  be  maintained  only  by  fire 
and  sword.  And  hence  it  was  that  England,  although 
a  citadel  of  orthodoxy  in  matters  of  mere  belief,  was, 
in  those  times,  by  no  means  the  seat  of  contented 
allegiance  to  the  Apostolic  See.  She  might,  perhaps, 
have  been  satisfied  to  slumber  for  centuries  longer, 
under  the  sedative  influence  of  the  Romish  supersti- 
tion, if  the  burden  of  Romish  dominion  had  been  less 
galling  and  oppressive.  As  it  was,  she  had  an  ear  to 
hear  the  lessons  of  any  teacher,  endowed  with  ad- 
dress, and  energy  enough  to  expose  the  corruptions 
which  had  so  long  insulted  her  patience,  and  ex- 
hausted her  resources. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  foregoing  survey,  imperfect 
as  it  is,  may  furnish  the  reader  with  some  conception 
of  the  progress  of  feeling  and  opinion,  in  this  country, 
relative  to  'ecclesiastical  affairs ;  and  may  enable  him 
to  discern  something  of  the  process  by  which  the 
public  mind  was,  at  least  partially,  ripened  for  the 
labours  and  services  of  Wiclif . 

were  not  bound  by  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  or  of  the  ancient  Fathers, 
but  solely  by  that  of  the  Bible,  and  "  necessary  reason."  The  eighth  and 
last  of  these  articles  maintained,  that  "there  is  in  man  only  one  form, 
namely,  the  rational  soul,  and  no  other  substantial  form,'*  from  which 
opinion,  all  the  forenamed  heresies  are  said  to  issue.  Wilk.  Cone.  vol. 
ii.  p.  123. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  99 


CHAPTER  m. 
1324—1367. 

Birth  of  Wiclif— Wiclif  admitted  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford-- 
Removes to  Merton  College — Acquires  the  title  of  Evangelic  Doc- 
tor— His  mastery  in  the  scholastic  learning — His  Tract  on  the 
Last  Age  of  the  Church,  occasioned  by  the  Plague  of  1348 — He 
commences  his  attacks  on  the  Mendicant  Orders — Notice  of  the 
first  institution  of  the  Mendicants — Their  efficacy  on  their  first 
Establishment— Their  enormous  increase — Their  rapacity  and 
turbulence— Their  introduction  into  England  in  1221 — Its  bad 
effects — Richard  Fitzralph's  opposition  to  them.,  followed  up  by 
Widif—The  sum  of  Wiclif  }s  objection  to  them  contained  in  a 
Tract  of  his,  published  twenty  years  later — Letters  of  Fraternity 
Oxford  Statute  in  restraint  of  the  Mendicants — Interference  of 
Parliament — Wiclif  presented  to  the  Rectory  of  Fillingham, 
which  he  exchanges  afterwards  for  that  of  Lutgershall — Pro- 


moted  to  the  Wardenship  of  Baliol  College,  which  he  resigns  for 
the  Headship  of  Canterbury  Hall,  founded  by  Archbishop  Islep — 
His  appointment  pronounced  void  by  Arcjfibishop  Langham — 
Wiclif  appeals  to  the  Pope,  who  ultimately  ratifies  Langham's 
decree — 7  he  Pope's  decision  confirmed  by  the  Crown — Wiclif 
vindicated  against  the  suspicion  of  being  impeUed  by  resentment 
to  hostilities  against  the  Papacy— The  Pope  revives  his  claim  of 
homage  and  tribute  from  England — Edward  III.  lays  the  de- 
mand before  Parliament,  wfio  resolve  that  it  ought  to  be  resisted — 
W\c\if  .challenged  to  defend  the  Resolution  of  Parliament — His 
reply  to  the  challenge. 

ABOUT  six  miles  from  the  town  of  Richmond,  in 
Yorkshire,  is  the  small  village  of  Wiclif,  which,  from 
the  Conquest  to  the  end  of  th  e  sixteenth  century, 
was  the  residence  of  a  family  of  the  same  name,  who 
were  lords  of  the  manor,  and  patrons  of  the  rectory. 
In  this  village,  or  its  immediate  vicinity,  1,324, 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  John  Birtil  °-f  Wiclit 
Wiclif*  was  born,  about  the  year  1324.  It  is,  fur- 

*  The  orthography  of  the  name,  in  different  writers,  is  so  perplexing  by 
its  variety,  that  I  have  thought  it  expedient  to  adopt  that  which  has  the 
smallest  number  of  letters.  With  Lewis,  therefore,  I  shall  write  the 
Reformer— WICLIF. 


100  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

ther,  probable,  that  he  was  a  member  of  the  family 
who  were  possessors  of  the  property.  Some  doubt 
may,  indeed,  be  raised  respecting  this  point  from  the 
facts  that  the  name  of  John  Wiclif,  is  not  to  be  found 
in  the  extant  records  of  the  household  ;*  and  that 
no  reference  to  his  parentage  has  yet  been  discovered 
in  his  writings.  His  own  silence,  however,  and  that 
of  his  relatives  may,  reasonably  enough,  be  ascribed 
to  the  alienation  which  would  be  unavoidably  occa- 
sioned by  his  defection  from  the  religious  principles 
of  the  age.  The  Wiclifs,  if  they  were  faithful  to 
their  creed,  would,  not  unnaturally,  be  slow  to  claim 
any  connexion  with  the  reputed  heretic:  and  the 
persecuted  teacher,  on  the  other  hand,  would  find  but 
little  delight  in  adverting  to  his  kindred,  if  he  per- 
ceived that  his  opinions  were  such  as  made  them 
willing  to  forget  him.  It  has  been  surmised  by  his 
latest  biographer,!  that  something  of  this  feeling  is 
betrayed  in  his  Treatise  on  Wedded  Men  and  Wives, 
in  which  he  says,  that  "  if  a  child  yield  himself  to 
meekness  and  poverty,  and  flee  covetousness  and 

pride,  from  a  dread  of  sin,  and  to  please  God 

by  so  doing  he  getteth  many  enemies  to  his  elders ; 
and  they  say  that  he  slandereth  all  their  noble  kindred, 
who  were  ever  held  true  men  and  worshipful.^ 

At  the  distance  of  five  centuries,  and  in  the  absence 
of  positive  documents,  it  would  be  vain  to  hope  for 
absolute  certainty  in  a  question  of  this  description. 
It  is,  however,  satisfactory  to  think  that  we  live  in 
times,  when  the  most  distinguished  families  would 
be  as  proud  to  claim  consanguinity  with  Wiclif,  as 
the  obscurest  in  his  own  days  may  have  been  anxious 
to  disclaim  it.  We  are  now  living  in  the  enjoyment 
of  blessings,  in  the  acquisition  of  which  he  may  justly 
be  reckoned  among  the  foremost  and  most  illustrious 
adventurers.  It  is,  therefore,  nothing  more  than  jus- 

*  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  234.  t  Ibid.  p.  235. 

t  M.S.  C.  C.  C.  Cambridge  :  "  On  Wedded  Men  and  their  Wives,  and 
their  Children  also." 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  101 

fice,  that  the  widest  possible  diffusion  should  be  given 
to  the  history  of  his  services  and  benefactions  to  the 
cause  of  scriptural  truth  amongst  us*  If  any  thing 
can  rally  our  fainting  energies  in  times  which  savour 
so  rankly  of"  things  that  be  of  men,"  it  is  the  con- 
templation of  noble  and  elevated  .examples  of  hero- 
ism and  self-devotion,  displayed  in  support  of  "  the 
things  that  be  of  God." 

Of  the  childhood  of  Wiclif  nothing  whatever  is 
known.  Oxford  was  the  scene  of  his  maturer  stu- 
dies, and  of  his  future  glory.  His  name  occurs  in  the 
list  of  students  first  admitted  at  Queen's  Wiclif  admitted 
College,  a  seminary  then  of  very  recent  at  Queen's  Coi- 
foundation.  It  was  established  in  the  lege'  Oxford; 
year  1340,  chiefly  by  the  munificence  of  Philip* 
pa,  Queen  of  Edward  the  Third,  influenced  and  di- 
rected by  the  zeal  of  Robert  Eglesfield,  her  chap- 
lain. For  reasons  now  unknown,  he  speedily  re» 
moved  from  Queen's  to  Merton  College,  Removes  to 
a  society  illustrious  for  many  of  the  Merton  College, 
most  celebrated  names  in  learning  and  divinity. 
In  the  course  of  that  century  it  supplied  the  English 
Church  with  three  metropolitans,  Thomas  Brad- 
wardine  "the  Profound  Doctor,"  Simon  Mepham,  and 
Simon  Islep.  Within  its  precincts,  Walter  Burley 
collected  the  solid  erudition  which  acquired  for  him 
the  title  of  the  **  Perspicuous  Doctor"  and  which  ele- 
vated him  to  the  office  of  preceptor  to  Edward  IV. 
The  renowned  William  Occham  was  another  of  the 
sons  of  Merton,  known  as  the  Singular  Doctor  and 
Venerable  Inceptor ;  and,  according  to  some  accounts, 
that  prodigy  of  intuitive  genius,  the  immortal  Duns 
Scotus  himself,  is  to  be  numbered  among  the  lumi- 
naries of  this  distinguished  fraternity. 

In  these  seats  of  learning  and  piety  it  was  the  lot 
of  Wiclif  to  acquire  a  title  more  truly  Acquires  the 
honourable  than  any  of  those  above  enu-  title  °f  Evan- 
jnerated,  that  of  the  Evangelic  or  Gospel  g( 
Doctor.  Like  all  .other  students  of  his  day  who  aspired 
9* 


102  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

to  eminence,  he,  of  course,  devoted  himself,  with 
intense  application,  to  the  scholastic  philosophy. 
Such  was  his  diligence,  that  he  is  said  to  have  com- 
mitted to  memory  many  of  the  more  intricate  por- 
tions of  Aristotle;*  and  such  was  his  success,  that 
the  bitterest  enemy  of  his  namef  has  described  him 
as  "  second  to  none  in  philosophy,  and  in  scholastic 
His  mastery  in  discipline  altogether  incomparable." 
the  scholastic  With  the  study  of  the  schoolmen  he  asso- 
ciated those  of  the  civil  and  the  canon 
law;  accomplishments,  in  that  age,  indispensable  to 
the  reputation  of  a  consummate  scholar  and  divine. 
His  industry,  further,  embraced  the  municipal  laws 
and  customs  of  his  own  country, — a  pursuit  not, 
perhaps,  so  fashionable  at  that  period,  but  quite  as 
worthy  of  the  attention  of  an  Englishman  as  the 
laws  of  the  empire,  or  the  compilations  of  Gratian. 
His  theological  principles  were  formed  by  a  diligent 
perusal  of  the  primitive  Christian  writers ;  and, 
chiefly,  of  four  of  the  most  distinguished  fathers  of 
the  Church,  St.  Augustine,  St.  Jerome,  St.  Basil, 
and  St.  Gregory.  Of  more  modern  divines,  the  two 
that  stood  highest  in  his  estimation  appear  to  have 
been  the  illustrious  Robert  Grostete,  Bishop  of  Lin- 
coln in  the  early  part  of  the  preceding  century,  and 
Richard  Fitzralph,  formerly  Chancellor  of  Oxford 
and  Professor  of  Divinity  there,  and  promoted  to  the 
see  of  Armagh  about  the  year  1347.  But  the  studies 
of  Wiclif  were  most  nobly  distinguished  from  those 
of  his  contemporaries  by  his  ardent  devotion  to  the 
sacred  Volume  itself,  which  eventually  won  for  him 
the  illustrious  appellation  above  alluded  to,  of  the 

*  Lewis,  p.  2. 

t  Knightonde  Eventibus  Angliae,  Col.  2644.  This  writer  was  a  canon 
of  Leycester,  contemporary  with  Wiclif,  and  a  cordial  hater  of  him, 
his  doctrines,  and  his  followers.  His  language  is  as  follows:  "Doctor 
in  theologia  eminentissimus  in  diebus  illis.  In  philosophia  nulli  repu- 
tabatur  secundus :  in  scholastic-is  disciplinis  incomparabilis.  Hie  max- 
ime  nitebatur  aliorum  ingenia  subtilitate  scientiae  et  profunditate  ingenii 
sui  transcendere,  et  ab  opinionibus  eorum  variare." 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  103 

Evangelic  or  Gospel  Doctor,  and  which,  above  all 
his  other  accomplishments,  qualified  him  to  impress 
an  image  of  himself  on  future  generations. 

It  is,  fortunately,  somewhat  difficult  for  us,  in  these 
times,  worthily  to  represent  to  ourselves  the  vigour, 
the  courage,  the  independence  of  soul,  the  strength 
of  purpose,  implied  in  the  resolution  of  a  teacher  of 
theology,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  to  take  his  stand 
in  the  citadel  of  revealed  truth,  and  to  regard  all  hu- 
man commentaries  as  mere  subordinate  outworks 
and  defences.  On  the  one  hand,  such  an  instructor 
had  to  encounter  the  frown  of  Papal  Infallibility, 
which  forbade  all  appeal  to  the  Scriptures,  from  the 
authority  of  the  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
awaited  him  the  contemptuous  scowl  of  the  scholastic 
Philosophy,  which  disdained  any  guide  but  Aristotle 
through  the  labyrinth  of  theology,  and  looked  with 
utter  scorn  on  those  shallow  spirits,  who  resorted 
directly  to  the  sacred  text  for  the  pure  and  heavenly 
science  of  salvation.  In  this  and  the  two  preceding 
centuries  the  compilations  of  Peter  Lombard*  were 
in  much  higher  and  more  universal  estimation  than 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  The  graduate,"  says 
Roger  Bacon,f  "  who  reads  (or  lectures  on)  the  text 
of  Scripture,  is  compelled  to  give  way  to  the  reader 
of  the  Sentences,  who  every  where  enjoys  honour 
and  precedence.  He  who  reads  the  Sentences  has 
the  choice  of  his  hour,  and  ample  entertainment 
among  the  religious  orders.  He  who  reads  the  Bible 
is  destitute  of  these  advantages,  and  sues,  like  a 
mendicant,  to  the  reader  of  the  Sentences,  for  the  use 
of  such  hour  as  it  may  please  him  to  grant.  He  who 

*  Peter  Lombard  was  Bishop  of  Paris  in  the  twelfth  century.  His 
book  ofSente?ices  was  principally  a  compilation  from  the  fathers,  made, 
probably,  with  the  best  intentions  ;  and  designed  to  fortfy  religious  faith 
with  the  aid  of  the  scholastic  metaphysics.  It  was  intended  to  form  a 
complete  body  of  divinity,  and  was  the  theological  wonder  of  the  Middle 


Ages. 
t  S 

iii.  p.     .,  rom    oge  p. 

by  Sam.  Jebb,  from  the  original  MSS. 


ges. 

t  See  the  original,  quoted  in  note  (7,)  to  Mosheim's  Eccl.  History,  voL 
iii.  p.  93.,  from  Roger  Bacon's  Op.  Maj.  published  in  1733,  at  London, 


104  UF£   OF   WICLIJ. 

reads  the  Sums  of  Divinity,  is  every  where  allowed 
to  hold  disputations,  and  is'venerated  as  master ;  he 
who  only  reads  the  text  is  not  permitted  to  dispute  at 
all ;  which  is  absurd  /"  Such  is  the  language  of  the  illus- 
trious Friar  Bacon,  in  the  thirteenth  century.  That 
of  John  of  Salisbury,  in  the  twelfth  century,  was 
still  stronger.  He  tells  us  that,  in  his  time,  the  more 
scriptural  teachers  were  "  not  only  rejected  as  philo- 
sophers, but  unwillingly  endured  as  clergymen — nay, 
were  scarcely  acknowledged  to  be  men.  They  be- 
came objects  of  derision,  and  were  termed  the  bullocks 
of  Abraham,  or  the  asses  of  Balaam."*  If,  as  some 
have  conjectured,  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  were  the  two  Apocalyptic  Witnesses,  well 
may  they  be  said  to  have  prophesied  in  sackcloth,  in 
those  dark  times.  They  bore,  indeed,  a  perpetual 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  living  God ;  but,  all 
this  while,  they  stood  before  men  as  it  were  in  the 
garb  and  guise  of  culprits  and  of  penitents.  The 
record  which  they  bare  was  heard  with  irreverence 
and  suspicion.  They  were  received  as  if  they  were 
little  better  than  impostors  and  deceivers  of  the  peor 
pie.  Like  penitents  they  were  scarcely  allowed  to 
show  themselves  in  the  assemblies  of  the  faithful ; 
or,  at  all  events,  were  suffered  to  appear  there  only 
in  the  unworthy  and  humiliating  disguise  of  a  foreign 
tongue :  and  few  there  were  who  ventured  to  appeal 
unto  their  testimony.  In  the  age  of  Wiclif,  indeed, 
the  sentiment  of  reverence  for  the  Papacy  had,  from 
various  causes,  been  somewhat  rudely  shaken,  in  this 
country :  but,  still,  there  were  but  faint  symptoms  of 
any  serious  defection  from  the  majesty  of  Romish 
tradition,  and  little  promise  of  the  reinstatement  of 
the  heavenly  witnesses  in  their  original  dignity  and 
honour.  The  biblical  method  of  instruction  was  still 

*  " ncc  modo  phllosophos  negant,  imo  nee  clericos  patiuntur,  vix 

homines  sinunt  esse ;  sed  boves  Abrahse,  vel  asinos  Bajaarnitas  duntaxat 
nominant,  imo  derident."  Metalog.  p.  746.  quoted  jn  Turner's  Hist, 
fStgL  vol.  i.  p.  503,  note  (66.)  ' 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  105 

trampled  under  foot  by  the  fastidious  pride  of  the 
scholastic  discipline,  and  by  the  overbearing  authority 
of  irrefragable  and  seraphic  doctors.  And  yet,  in  this 
state  of  the  public  mind  it  was,  that  Wiclif  had  the 
fortitude  and  the  independence  to  associate  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures  with  the  keenest  pursuit  of  the  scho- 
lastic metaphysics ;  and  not  only  so,  but  to  assign  to 
them  the  full  supremacy  which  belongs  to  them,  as 
disclosing  to  us  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life. 

And  well  was  it  for  the  cause  of  pure  and  scriptu- 
ral Christianity,  that  Wiclif  went  forth  to  his  achieve- 
ments, covered  over  with  the  panoply  of  the  intel- 
lectual knight-errantry  of  his  day:  that  he  was  master 
of  "  the  nice  fence,  and  the  active  practice"  of  the 
schools,  as  well  as  potent  to  wield  the  two-edged 
sword  of  the  Spirit.  This  happy  combination  of  ac- 
complishments served,  at  least,  to  win  him  the  res- 
pect of  all  parties.  It  secured  him  the  reverence  of 
his  followers,  who  must  have  seen  with  pride,  that 
their  teacher  was  foremost  among  the  sages  and  doc- 
tors of  his  time.  It  silenced  the  voice  of  disdain 
among  his  adversaries,  and  effectually  disabled  them 
from  attempting  to  cast  discredit  on  his  cause,  by 
pointing  to  tjae  ignorance  and  incapacity  of  the  ad- 
vocate. The  first  open  trial  of  his  powers  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  time,  was  in  the  year  1356 
1356,  when  he  put  forth  a  small  tract,  Wiciif's  tract 
entitled  "  the  Last  Age  of  the  Church."*  ™ L"th0ef  Lt^ 
The  train  of  thought,  which  led  to  this  Church;"  occa- 
production,  would  appear  to  have  been  si™ed  by  *« 
occasioned  by  certain  recent  calamities,  p 
more  tremendous  than  any  which  had  lighted  on  the 
earth  since  the  great  plague  which  made  the  reign 

*  Lewis's  account  of  this  Tract  is  very  imperfect.  For  more  satisfac- 
tory information  respecting  it,  we  are  indebted  to  the  industry  of  Mr. 
Vaughan.  It  has  never  been  printed,  and  exists  in  MS.  only  in  the  library 
of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  Class  c.  tab.  3.  No.  12.,  where  it  was  ex- 
amined by  Mr.  Vaughan ;  who  conjectures,  from  the  obscurity  of  several 
parts,  that  it  must  have  been  transcribed  from  some  very  illegible  or  im- 
perfect copy.  Vaughan'e  Life  of  Wiclif,  vol.  i.  p.  254,  note  (30.) 


106  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

of  Justinian  so  disastrously  memorable.  The  pesti* 
lence  which  broke  out  in  Tartary  in  the  year  1346, 
after  desolating  Asia,  and  part  of  Africa,  extended  its 
ravages  to  the  West,  and  is  supposed  to  have  swept 
away  full  one  third  of  the  population  of  Europe.  In 
addition  to  this  calamity,  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
European  continent  had  been  shaken  by  earthquakes; 
and  though  these  convulsions  did  not  extend  to  Eng- 
land, the  country  was  deluged  by  incessant  rains  for 
many  months  together,  and,  at  last  was  smitten  by 
the  scourge  which  had  been  ravaging  the  rest  of 
the  earth.  The  destructive  malady  made  its  appear- 
ance at  Dorchester,  in  August  1348  ;  by  November  it 
had  reached  the  metropolis,  and  thence  continued  its 
progress  of  desolation  towards  the  North.  Of  the 
numbers  which  perished  in  London  no  exact  account 
has  been  preserved.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  for 
many  weeks  the  daily  average  of  mortality  amounted 
to  two  hundred ;  and  the  lowest  computation  must 
fix  the  whole  loss  at  fifty  thousand  souls.  At  this 
period,  Wiclif  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age ;  a 
time  of  life  sufficiently  advan6ed  to  make  a  man,  like 
him,  an  intelligent  and  reflecting  witness  of  these 
horrors.  So  dreadful  was  the  havoc,  th#t,  by  many, 
ij  was  regarded  as  the  almost  immediate  forerunner 
of  the  final  doom.  The  Angel  of  Destruction  was 
supposed  to  have  gone  forth  upon  this  commission  of 
vengeance,  in  order  that  men  might  be  prepared  for 
the  last  advent  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  meditations  of 
Wiclif  on  this  dreadful  scourge,  appear  to  have  been 
exalted  by  the  study  of  certain  ancient  predictions, 
ascribed  to  the  celebrated  Joachim,*  a  Calabrian 

*  Respecting  this  Joachim,  consult  Mosheim,  vol.  iii.  p.  209 — 211.  238. 
289.  293. ;  and  compare  Fleury,  vol.  xv.  p.  595 — 599.  The  Papal  histo- 
rian dwells,  .with  evident  satisfaction,  on  the  rigid  and  austere  sanctity  of 
the  monk,  on  his  threadbare  apparel,  with  its  singed  and  ragged  skirts, 
and  on  the  almost  miraculous  increase  of  his  alacrity  and  vigour,  which 
seemed  to  be  more  abundant,  in  proportion  to  the  scantiness  of  his  diet. 
Of  the  prophetic  gifts  of  the  saint,  however,  he  speaks  with  prudent 
reserve,  ("  il  passoit  pour  avour  le  don  de  prophetie.")  And,  in  truth,  it 
is  scarcely  to  be  imagined  that  any  faithful  Catholic  could  dwell,  with 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  107 

Abbot,  who  lived  towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, and  who  foretold  the  destruction  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  and  the  approach  of  a  purer  era,  under  the 
appellation  of  the  age  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  These, 
and  similar  researches,  seem  to  have  brought  Wiclif 
to  a  persuasion,  that  the  plagues  with  which  the  na- 
tions had  recently  been  scourged,  were  indications 
that  the  great  designs  of  God  were  hastening  to  a 
close;  and  that,  with  the  fourteenth  century,  the 
world  would  come  to  an  end.  In  support  of  the  notion, 
that  between  the  first  and  second  advent  of  Christ, 
four  periods  of  heavy  tribulation  were  to  intervene, 
he  relies  on  the  authority  of  the  venerable  Bede  and 
St.  Bernard.  Of  these  tribulations,  the  first  was  the 
furious  and  repeated  onset  of  persecution  ;  the  second, 
the  pestilent  infection  of  heresy;  the  third  of  these 
calamitous  trials  was  to  originate  in  what  Wiclif 
terms  "  the  secret  heresy  of  the  Simonists ;"  the  last 
was  to  include  the  final  triumphs  of  Anti-Christ;. 
"  the  period  of  whose  approach,"  he  adds,  "  God  only 
knoweth."*  The  whole,  however,  of  these  two  final 
visitations,  was  to  be  crowded  into  the  space  of  the 
fourteenth  century ;  which  is  accordingly  designed 
by  Wiclif  as  "  the  Last  Age  of  the  World,"  and  so 
gives  its  title  to  the  treatise  under  consideration. 

As  a  prophetic  work,  this  tract  of  Wiclif  is,  of 
course-,  entirely  worthless ;  but  it  is  extremely  valua- 
ble as  a  manifestation  of  the  vigour  with  which  he 
was  girding  himself  up  for  a  conflict  with  the  powers 
and  Principalities  of  the  Papal  empire.  The  de- 
struction which,  of  late  years,  had  been  hurled  upon 
the  earth,  had  awakened  thoughtful  men  to  medita- 

much  complacency,  on  predictions  which  represented  the  Church  of 
Rome  as  the  fleshly  synagogue  of  Satan,  and  spoke  of  it  as  doomed  to 
certain  demolition.  Whether  these  prophecies  are  rightly  ascribed  to 
Joachim,  seems  rather  doubtful.  In  his  name,  however,  they  became, 
unquestionably,  current.  The  reputed  prophecies  of  Hildegardis,  (a 
nun  who  lived  in  the  middle  of  the  twellth  century,)  are  much  in  the 
same  strain,  arid  were  gravely  appealed  to  by  John  Hus. 
Martyrs,  vol.  i.  p.  525. 
*  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  257. 


108  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

tion  on  the  dealings  of  Him  to  whom  vengeance  be- 
longeth,  and  had  prompted  them  to  search  into  the 
causes  of  those  tremendous  chastisements,  which 
they  imagined  to  have  recently  descended  upon  the 
nations.  As  usual,  they  looked  for  those  causes  on 
the  surface  of  society  ;  and  there  they  found,  among 
the  most  conspicuous  classes,  the  customary  effect  of 
fulness  of  bread,  and  abundance  of  idleness — namely, 
a  dedication  of  themselves  to  toyish  and  frivolous 
vanities,  an  insanely  capricious  prodigality  of  ap- 
parel* (one  sure  mark  of  a  semi-barbarous  age,)  and 
a  general  propensity  to  voluptuous  indulgence ;  and 
these  were  the  things,  it  was  concluded,  which  had 
brought  down  upon  the  kingdom  the  wrath  of  the 
Almighty.  Wiclif,  it  seems,  was  not  content  to  deal 
thus  superficially  with  the  evil,  or  to  heal  the  hurt  of 
the  people  slightly.  He  plunged  his  knife,  directly, 
into  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  depths  of  the  im- 
posthume.  He  loudly  and  keenly  arraigned  the  vices 
of  the  clergy,  and  declared  that,  among  them  was 
the  seat  of  the  national  malady.  Like  Jeremiah  of 
old,  he  proclaimed  that  from  the  prophet  to  the  priest 
every  man  dealt  falsely ;  that  by  their  rapacity  they 
ate  up  the  people  as  it  were  bread ;  that  their  sensuality 
was  such  as  sent  up  a  savour  that  infected  the  earth, 
and  "  smelt  to  heaven."  The  whole  community,  he 
maintained,  was  corrupted  with  the  fermentation  of 
their  pernicious  leaven  ;  and  against  their  worldliness 
was  to  be  directed  the  public  execration,  for  spreading 

*  Contemporary  writers  furnish  a  curious  account  of  these  extrava- 
gances. They  mention,  with  deep  abomination,  the  silken  hoods,  and 
the  party-coloured  coats,  and  the  deep  sleeves,  and  the  narrow  waists,  and 
the  bushy  beards,  and  the  long  tails,  and,  above  all,  the  sinful  prolonga- 
tion of  the  pointed  shoes,  which  distinguished  the  exquisites  and  the 
coxcombs  of  those  times.  The  female  sex  did  not  escape  the  denuncia- 
tion. The  enormous  height  of  their  head-dress,  with  its  streaming  rib- 
bons, their  tunics,  half  of  one  colour  and  halt  of  another,  their  costly 
girdles,  profusely  decorated  with  embroidery  and  gold,  their  exchange 
of  the  ambling  palfrey  for  the  prancing  charger,  the  unbecoming  bold- 
ness or  levity  of  their  demeanour, — all  these  were  dwelt  upon  with  horror 
and  indignation,  as  signs  of  an  age  ripe  for  destruction.  See  Lingard, 
TO!  iv.  p.  90. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  109 

that  degeneracy,  which  had  provoked  the  Lord  to 
send  his  judgments  upon  the  land,  and  which  would 
provoke  him  to  send  judgments  yet  more  intolerable  * 
He  speaks  of  "  the  pestilent  smiting  together  of  people, 
and  hurling  together  of  realms,  because  the  honours  of 
Holy  Church  are  given  to  unworthy  men ;  a  mischief 
so  heavy,  that  well  will  it  be  for  that  man  who  shall 
not  then  be  alive."  "  Both  vengeance  of  sword," 
he  affirms,  "  and  mischiefs  unknown  before,  by  which 
men  in  those  days  shall  be  punished,  shall  befal 
them,  because  of  the  sins  of  priests.  Hence  men 
shall  fall  upon  them,  and  cast  them  out  of  their  fat 
benefices ;  and  shall  say,  He  came  into  his  benefice 
by  his  kindred,  and  this,  by  a  covenant  made  before : 
he,  for  his  worldly  service,  came  into  the  Church, 
and  this  for  money.  Then,  every  such  priest  shall 
cry,  alas  !  alas  !  that  no  good  spirit  dwelt  with  me, 
at  my  coming  into  the  Church  of  God  !"  In  those 
days,  "  men  of  Holy  Church  shall  be  despised  as  car- 
rion ;  as  dogs  shall  they  be  cast  out  in  open  places." 
In  order,  however,  to  comfort  and  support  the  righteous 
under  the  apprehension  of  such  gloomy  dispensations, 
he  adds,  in  language  which  well  became  the  Evan- 
gelic Doctor,  "  Jesus  Christ  entered  into  holy  things, 
that  is  into  Holy  Church,  by  holy  living  and  holy 
teaching;  and  with  his  blood  he  delivered  man's 
nature ;  as  Zechariah  writeth  in  his  ninth  chapter,* 
Thou,  verily,  with  the  blood  of  thy  witness,  (or  of  thy 
testament,)  hast  let  out  from  the  pit  them  that  were 
bound.  So,  when  we  were  sinful,  and  the  children 
of  wrath,  God's  Son  came  out  of  heaven,  and,  pray- 
ing his  Father  for  his  enemies,  he  died  for  us.  Then, 
much  rather  shall  we  be  saved,  now  that  we  are 
made  righteous  hy  his  blood.  St.  Paul  writeth  to 
the  Romans,!  that  Jesus  should  pray  for  us,  and  that 
he  went  into  heaven  to  appear  in  the  presence  of 
God  for  us.  The  same  also,  he  writeth  to  the  He* 

•  Zech.  ix.  11.  t  Rom.  viii.  34, 

10 


110  LIFE  OF   WICLIF. 

brews  ;  the  which  presence  may  He  grant  us  to  be- 
hold, who  liveth  and  reigneth  without  end.  Amen."* 
This  attack  upon  ecclesiastical  corruptions  was 
but  prelusive  to  more  stubborn  conflicts.     Nothing 
seems  to  be  better  ascertained,  in  the  history  of  Wic- 
1360.         li£  tnan   tne  fact»  tnat  gbout  the  year 
Wiclif     com-  1360  he  was  notorious  for  standing  tore- 
I™5?068  ™  s  tKl"  most  in  that  warfare  which  had  for  some 

lacks     on    me     .          ,  .  .  . 

Mendicant  Or-  time  been  vigorously  carried  on  against 
dera  the  Mendicant  Orders  ;  and  that  his  ac- 

tivity in  the  conflict  first  elevated  him  to  that  com- 
manding rank,  in  the  public  estimation,  which  he 
never  afterwards  lost.  The  modern  Roman  Catholic 
historian  has  been  pleased  to  describe  this  as  a  ridi- 
culous controversy  ;f  a  somewhat  strange  epithet  for 
one  of  the  most  momentous  contests  in  the  history 
of  the  Church !  Ridiculous  enough  it  unquestiona- 
bly was,  if  considered  purely  with  reference  to  the 
impudence,  the  hypocrisy,  and  the  imposture,  which 
it  exposed ;  but  nothing  could  well  be  more  grave 
and  serious,  if  estimated  by  the  shock  which  it  in- 
flicted on  the  fabric  of  the  Papal  power.  The  order 
First  institution  °f  begging  friars,  it  will  be  remembered, 
of  the  Mendi-  was  established  early  in  the  preceding 
cants  century,  at  a  time  when  the  opulence  of 

the  monastic  establishments  had  converted  most  of 
them  into  huge  "  castles  of  indolence,"  into  gigantic 
monuments  of  pride  and  sensuality,  to  which  the 
enemies  of  superstition  were  perpetually  pointing, 
when  they  were  desirous  of  awakening  the  world  to 
the  duty  of  demolishing  the  abuses  of  the  Church. 
The  Papacy,  thus  environed  by  adversaries,  and  pre- 
senting to  their  assault  such  a  multitude  of  vulnerable 
points,  accepted  with  gladness  the  services  of  an  Or- 
der, which  promised  to  exhibit  to  the  world  an  image 

•  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  258,  259. 

t  "It  was  about  the  year  1360  that  the  name  of  Wiclif  is  first  men- 
tioned in  history.  He  was  then  engaged  in  afierce  but  ridiculous  conr 
troversy  with  the  various  Orders  of  fnara"  Ling.  vol.  iv.  p.  213. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  Ill 

of  primitive  simplicity  and  self-denial,  and  to  emu- 
late in  austerity  of  demeanour,  and  contempt  of 
wealth,  the  greatest  champions  of  ecclesiastical  re- 
form. It  was,  further,  perceived,  that  nothing  could 
be  more  valuable  to  the  Pontificate,  than  a  body  of 
auxiliaries,  who  would  be  armed  by  their  vows  of 
poverty,  as  with  triple  brass,  against  the  power  and 
the  menaces  of  all  secular  potentates.  The  holy 
Church  would  thus  be  provided  with  a  hardy  and 
devoted  militia,  thoroughly  prepared  for  all  the  vari- 
ous exigencies  of  her  warfare.  On  the  one  hand, 
she  would  be  effectually  guarded  against  the  hostility 
of  princes,  and,  on  the  other,  against  the  still  more 
formidable  encroachments  of  heresy.  The  most 
ample  and  honourable  privileges  were,  accordingly, 
lavished  on  those  fraternities  which  made  a  voluntary 
abjuration  of  property;  and  whose  members  were 
ready  to  disperse  themselves  throughout  Christen- 
dom, relying  for  their  support  on  the  alms  of  the 
faithful,  and,  for  their  influence,  on  the  example  of 
an  austere,  laborious,  and  holy  life. 

For  a  considerable  time,  the  new  insti-  The  efficacy  of 
tution  did  its  office  to  admiration.  The  the  Mendicant 
effect  was  like  the  transfusion  of  fresh  °r(Jefs  f.lt  ^eir 

,.»,,,.  .  ._,.       first  institution. 

liie-blood  into  a  decaying  system.  Ine 
veins  and  arteries  of  the  languishing  monster  seemed 
to  swell  with  renovated  life ;  and  its  energies  went 
forth,  once  more,  with  a  speed  and  impulse,  which 
gave  it  a  sort  of  omnipresence  throughout  Europe. 
The  genius  of  the  system  penetrated,  quickly,  into 
every  department  of  ecclesiastical  enterprise  and 
occupation,  whether  high  or  low,  whether  obscure  or 
ejninent..  It  intruded  itself  into  the  region  of  paro- 
chial duty;  it  seated  itself  in  the  confessional;  it 
seized  on  the  chair  of  the  University ;  it  grasped  the 
erozier  of  episcopacy ;  it  held  the  seals  of  civil  office, 
and  the  portfolio  of  diplomatic  intrigue ;  till,  at  last, 
it  appeared  probable  that  the  confidence  and  venera- 
tion of  nearly  the  whole  Catholic  world  would  be 


112  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

transferred  from  their  established  guides,  to  these 
professors  of  primitive  sanctity  and  perfection. 

It  was  not  to  he  expected  that  the  secular  clergy, 
or  the  ancient  religious  orders,  would  regard,  without 
the  bitterest  jealousy,  the  reputation  and  the  pros- 
perity of  their  rivals  :  and,  as  might  have  been  rea- 
sonably anticipated,  symptoms  of  degeneracy  began 
speedily  to  develope  themselves  among  the  new  socie- 
ties, and  to  animate  both  priest  and  monk  with  the 
hopes  of  a  successful  resistance  to  their  power.  In 
the  first  place,  the  distinguished  honours  heaped  on 
Enormous  in-  tne  Mendicant  system  had  enormously 
crease  of  the  multiplied  its  numbers :  and  such  was 
Mendicants.  tjie  rapidity  of  this  accumulation,  that 
it  threatened  almost  to  overwhelm  the  power  which 
had  called  it  into  existence.  Accordingly,  in  1272, 
Gregory  X.  found  it  necessary  to  repress  these  "ex- 
travagant swarms"  of  holy  beggars,  and  to  confine 
the  institution  to  the  four  denominations  of  Domi- 
nicans, Franciscans,  Carmelites,  and  Hermits  of  St. 
Augustine.  But  the  immoderate  increase  of  their 
numbers  was  not  the  only  circumstance  which  tended 
to  impair  the  respect  of  the  world  for  their  itinerant 
Their  rapacity  instructors.  In  the  course  of  time  these 
and  turbulence,  professors  of  poverty  were  often  found 
transformed  into  prodigies  of  opulence.  Men  beheld 
with  astonishment,*  that  the  barefooted  brethren,  to 
whom  property  was  an  accursed  thing,  which  they 
were  to  touch  not,  and  handle  not,  became  gradually, 
by  some  strange  legerdemain,  the  lords  of  stately 

*  Matthew  Paris,  speaking  of  their  turbulent  and  intrusive  establish- 
ment of  themselves  at  St.  Edmund's  Bury,  in  1258,  says—"  hoc  audientes 
universi,  non  poterant  satis  admirari  quod  tarn  sancti  viri,  qui  sponta- 
neam  paupertatem  elegerunt,  contemptp  Dei  timore,  et  tarn  reverendi 
martyris  et  hominum  oblocutione,  et  privilegiorum  et  conservatorum 
tuitione,  violenter  illius  nobilis  Ecclesiae  statum  perturbarunt."  And 
again,  in  reference  to  a  similar  irruption  at  Dunstable,  in  1259,  he  ob- 
serves,— "domicilia  aded  sumptuosa  construxerant,  ut  in  oculis  intuen- 
tium,  tot  sumptus  subito  effusi  a  pauperibusfratribus,  paupertatem. 
toluntariam  professis,  admirationem  suscitarent."  Matth.  Par.  p. 
830,  and  845.  Ed.  16S4. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  113 

edifices,  and  ample  revenues ;  and  appeared  in  a  fair 
way  to  rival  the  hierarchy  in  wealth,  as  effectually 
as  they  had  rivalled  them  in  authority  and  influence. 
And  this  manifest  and  shameless  abandonment  of  the 
original  spirit  of  their  system,  naturally  provided 
their  adversaries  with  another  formidable  ground  for 
complaint  and  opposition. 

It  was  in  the  year  1221  that  these  1221- 
reformers  first  made  their  appearance  JheMendicV^ 
in  England,  under  the  conduct  of  Gilbert  into  England. 
de  Fresney,  who,  with  twelve  Dominican  brethren, 
obtained  an  establishment  in  Oxford.  On  their  first 
arrival  they  enjoyed  the  patronage  of,  perhaps,  the 
greatest  ecclesiastical  name  of  that  age,  the  illustrious 
Bishop  Grostete ;  who,  however,  lived  to  repent  the 
encouragement  he  had  lavished  upon  them,  and  to 
denounce  them  as  the  heaviest  curse  that  could  be 
inflicted  on  the  cause  of  Christianity.* 
The  system  produced  here,  in  full  mea-  It! 
sure,  the  same  effects  which  raised  against  it  the 
voice  of  the  rest  of  Europe.  The  monkish  chroni- 
cles are  filled  with  complaints  of  the  rapacity,  ambi- 
tion, and  turbulence,  of  the  Mendicant  Orders ;  and 
the  furious  animosities  which  broke  out  between 
these  intruders  and  the  ancient  clergy,  both  secular 
and  monastic,  began  to  rouse  the  Christian  world 
from  their  long  and  vexatious  dream  of  spiritual  in- 
fatuation. "  It  is  a  matter  of  melancholy  presage," 
says  Matthew  Paris,  "  that,  within  the  four  and  twenty 
years  of  their  establishment  in  England,  these  friars 
have  piled  up  their  mansions  to  a  royal  altitude.  Im- 
pudently transgressing  the  bounds  of  poverty,  the 
very  basis  of  their  profession,  they  fulfil,  to  the  letter, 
the  ancient  prophecies  of  Hildegard,  and  exhibit  in- 
estimable treasures  within  their  spacious  edifices,  and 

*  "God  says  that  evil  teachers  heen  the  cause  of  destruction  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  Grostete  declares  it  well,  and  friars  been  the  principal  evil 
teachers;  they  been  principal  cause  of  destroying  this  world."  Wiclif, 
against  the  Order  of  Friars,  cap.  26. 

10* 


114  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

lofty  walls.  They  beset  the  dying  bed  of  the  noble 
and  the  wealthy,  in  order  to  extort  secret  bequests 
from  the  fears  of  guilt  or  superstition.  No  one  now 
has  any  hope  of  salvation  but  through  the  ministry 
of  the  preachers  or  the  Minorites.  They  are  found  at 
the  court,  in  the  character  of  counsellors,  and  cham- 
berlains, and  treasurers,  and  negociators  of  marriage. 
As  the  agents  of  Papal  extortion,  they  are  incessantly 
applying  the  arts  oj  flattery,  the  stings  of  rebuke,  or 
the  terrors  of  confession.  They  pour  contempt  on  the 
sound  Orders  of  Benedict  and  Augustine ;  and,  accord- 
ing to  their  estimate,  the  black-cowled  brethren  are 
as  much  superior  to  the  monks,  as  the  disciples  of 
Epicurus  would  be  to  so  many  simpletons  and  boors."* 
— "  With  overbearing  insolence,  they  frequently  in- 
quired of  the  devout,  by  whom  they  had  been  con- 
fessed ?  And  if  the  answer  was,  by  my  own  priest, 
they  replied,  and  who  is  that  ignoramus  ?  He  never 
heard  lectures  in  theology;  he  never  gave  his  nights 
to  the  study  of  the  decrees ;  he  never  learned  to  un- 
ravel knotty  questions.  They  are  all  blind,  and 
leaders  of  the  blind.  Come  to  us,  who  know  how  to 
distinguish  leper  from  leper."  The  consequence  of 
all  this  was,  not  only  that  the  parochial  clergy  fell 
into  contempt,  but  that  their  parishioners,  no  longer 
compelled  to  blush  in  the  presence  of  their  local 
ministers, f  broke  out  into  unbridled  licentiousness. 
For  thus  (the  chronicler  informs  us,)  did  they  whisper 
to  each  other, — "Let  us  follow  our  own  pleasure, 
Some  one  of  the  preaching  brothers  will  soon  travel 
this  way, — one  whom  we  never  saw  before,  and  never 
shall  see  again ;  so  that,  when  we  have  had  our  will, 
we  can  confess  without  trouble  or  annoyance."  Such 
was  the  influence  they  derived  from  the  patronage  of 
the  Pope,  and  the  confidence  of  the  people,  that  they 
were  enabled  to  bid  defiance  to  the  power  of  the  con» 

*  Matth.  Paris,  p.  541.    Ed.  1684. 

t  " Cum  rubor  et  confusio  in  confessione  pars  sit  maxima  et 

potissima  in  pcenitentia."    Matth.  Par.  p.  608.    Ed.  1684. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  115 

venual  clergy,  and  sometimes  to  usurp  their  privi- 
leges, and  even  to  appropriate  their  revenues :  to  the 
utter  amazement  of  all  thinking  persons,  who  could 
not  but  wonder  at  such  excesses  of  rapacity  and  inso- 
lence, exemplified  by  the  poor  brethren,— the  holy 
professors  of  voluntary  indigence.*  To  fill  up  the 
measure  of  evil,  it  appears,  that  the  country  was,  at 
last,  so  over-run  by  swarms  of  friars,  and  so  dis- 
turbed by  their  disorders,  that  our  ancient  records  are 
filled  with  warrants  for  the  arrest  of  the  sanctimoni- 
ous vagrants. t 

These  abuses  had  become  so  intolera- 

,  ,        .        ,  .  «  -,-,  j          j  TTT      ,1     .     Kichard     ritz- 

ble,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  that,  raiph>s  opposi- 
(as  we  have  already  seen,)  in  the  year  tion  to  the  Men- 
1357,  Richard  Fitzralph,  Archbishop  of  d 
Armagh,|  fearlessly  arraigned  the  Mendicants  before 

*  Of  this  several  instances  are  recorded  by  Matth.  Paris,  608,  830.  845. 
Ed.  1674.  Ed.  1684. 

t  See  Turner's  History  of  England,  vol.  ii,  p.  413,  note  (63.)  which 
contains  various  references  to  such  orders  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  Ed- 
ward I.  and  Edward  II.  Among  them  is  one  general  order  to  arrest  them 
all  over  the  kingdom:  "De  religiosis  vagabundis  arrestandis  per 
totum  regnum." 

+  Some  account  has  been  given,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  of  this  dis- 
tinguished prelate,  usually  known  by  the  title  of  Armachanus.  The 
following  is  a  portion  of  his  Sermon  against  the  Mendicants,  which  may 
serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  English  spoken  in  those  times:— 

"  Hereof  cometh  grete  damage  both  to  the  peple,  and  to  the  clergie, 
also  to  the  peple,  for  many  men,  for  what  they  loveth  best  in  this  world, 
that  is  her  own  children.  Also,  hit  is  grete  damage  to  the  clergie,  for 
now  in  the  Universitees  of  the  rewme  of  Englond.  For  children  Beth  so 
y stole  from  her  fadres  and  modres,  lewed  men  (laymen)  in  every  place 
withholdeth  her  children,  and  sendeth  hem  nought  to  the  University. 
For  hem  is  lever  (more  willing)make  hem  erthe  tilyers,  and  have  them, 
than  sende  hem  to  the  Universitd,  and  lese  hem.  So  that  ghet,  in  my 
tymes  in  the  Universite  of  Oxenford  were  thritty  thousand  scholers 
;at  ones ;  and  nowe  beth  unnethe  six  thousand.  And  me  trowith,  that 
the  grittest  occasioun  why  scholers  beth  so  withdraw,  hit  is  for  children 
beth  so  begiled  &  ystole.  And  I  see  none  gretter  damage  to  all  the  clergie 
than  this  damage. 

"  And  there  is  more  great  damage  that  undoth  and  distroyeth  the  secu- 
Jers  of  all  manner  facultg,  for  those  orders  of  beggers,  for  endeless  wyn- 
nynges  that  thei  getteth  by  beggyng  of  the  forseide  privy  leges  of  schriftes 
and  sepultures,  and  othere.  Thei  beth  now  so  multiplyed  in  coventes 
and  in  persons,  that  many  men  tellith  that  in  general  studies  unnethe 
is  yfounde  to  sillying  a  profitable  book  of  the  faculte  of  art,  of  dy vynyte,  of 
law  canoun,  of  phisik,  ether  of  law  civile,  but  all  bookes  beth  ybought  of 
freres.  So  that  in  every  covent  is  a  noble  librarie  and  a  grete ;  so  that 


116  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

the  Pope,  at  Avignon,  and  represented,  among  other 
causes  of  complaint,  that  their  attempts  to  allure  into 
their  Order  the  youth  at  our  Universities,  had  occa- 
sioned the  most  violent  alarm,  and  had  reduced  the 
number  of  students  at  Oxford  from  30,000  to  6,000. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  exertions  of  Fitzralph 
were  vigorously  followed  up  by  Wiclif.  It  may  not, 
perhaps,  be  possible  for  us,  at  .the  present  day,  confi- 
dently to  affix  to  any  of  his  extant  writings  against 
them,  a  date  so  early  as  the  year  1360.  But  then  it 
should  be  remarked,  once  for  all,  that  the  works  of  the 
Reformer  are  extremely  voluminous,  and  very  much 
dispersed.  It  is  but  an  inconsiderable  portion  of  them 
that  has  ever  appeared  in  print.  The  remainder  are 
still  in  manuscript,  and  are  scattered  throughout  the 
public  libraries  of  the  empire.  We  are  by  no  means 
quite  certain  that  the  whole  of  them  have  been  dis- 
covered ;  and  it  would  be  a  task  of  extreme,  perhaps, 
of  hopeless  difficulty,  to  ascertain  the  exact  period  of 
their  composition  or  publication.  It  is,  nevertheless, 
important  and  satisfactory  to  know,  that  the  com- 
mencement of  his  labours  in  this  cause  has,  with 
almost  unanimous  consent,  been  referred  to  this  pe- 
riod by  all  the  writers,  whether  friendly  or  adverse, 
who  have  mentioned  his  name.  The  pith  and  mar- 
row of  his  controversy  with  these  religionists,  may 
be  found  in  a  small  treatise  "  against  the  Orders  of 
Friars,"  which  was  published  by  him  full  twenty 
years  later,  and  in  which  his  charges  and  objections 
are  arranged  under  fifty  distinct  heads  or  chapters.* 

everich  frere,  that  hath  state  in  scole,  such  as  thei  beth  now,  hath  an 
huge  librarye.  And  also  I  sent  of  my  sugettes  to  scole  thre  or  foure  per- 
sons ;  and  hit  is  seide  me  that  somme  of  hem  beth  come  home  agen,  for 
thei  myght  nought  fynde  to  sell  oon  gude  bible,  nother  other  covenable 
bookes.  Hit  semeth  that  herof  schuld  come  siche  an  end,  that  no  clergie 
should  leve  in  holy  chirche,  but  oonlich  in  freres,  and  so,  the  faith  of  holy 
chirche  were  loste,  but  oonlich  in  freres."  See  Turner's  Hist.  EngL 
part  vi.  c.  ii.  p.  583,  note  28. 

*  This  tract,  together  with  his  petition  to  the  King  and  Parliament, 
was  printed  in  a  small  volume  at  Oxford,  in  1608,  with  the  title, — "  Two 
short  treatises  against  the  Orders  of  Begging  Friars,  compiled  by  that 
famous  Doctour  of  the  Church,  and  preacher  of  God's  word,  John  Wie- 


LIFE   OF  WICL1F.  117 

The  remainder  of  his  life,  however,  from  the  period 
of  his  first  appearance  against  them,  may,  without 
much  inaccuracy,  be  described  as  one  continued  pro- 
test against  the  iniquity  of  these  Orders.  He  never 
seems  to  have  lost  sight  of  the  subject.  His  indig- 
nant reprobation  of  their  practices  is  prodigally  scat- 
tered over  his  writings.  To  his  latest  breath,  he 
never  ceased  to  denounce  them  as  the  pests  of  socie- 
ty,— as  the  bitter  enemies  of  all  pure  religion, — as 
monsters  of  arrogance,  hypocrisy,  and  covetousness, 
—in  short,  as  no  other  than  the  tail  of  the  apocalyp- 
tic dragon,  which  was  to  sweep  away  a  third  part  of 
the  stars  from  the  firmament  of  the  Church.* 

The  limits  of  this  narrative  forbid  the  introduction 
of  a  copious  abstract  of  his  treatise  against  the  Friars. 
There  is  one  of  their  practices,  however,  too  remark- 
able to  pass  unnoticed  here.  The  fifteenth  of  his  ob- 
jections charges  them  with  deceiving  and  pillaging 
the  people  by  their  Letters  of  Fraternity,  Letters  of  fra- 
which  he  describes  as  "  powdred  with  ternity. 
hypocrisie,  covetise,  simonie,  blasphemie,  and  other 
leasings."  These  precious  documents,  it  seems,  were 
written  on  fine  vellum,  splendidly  illuminated,  under 
the  seal  of  the  fraternity,  and  covered  with  sarsnet : 
and  they  conveyed  to  the  faithful  and  wealthy  pur- 
chaser an  assurance  of  his  participation  in  the  masses, 

lif,  sometime  fellow  of  Merton,  and  Master  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  and 
afterwards  Parson  of  Lutterworth  in  Lecestershire,  faithfully  printed 
according  to  two  ancient  copies,  extant,  the  one  in  Benet  College  in  Cam- 
bridge, the  other  remaining  in  the  public  library  at  Oxford."  At  the  end 
of  the  same  volume  is  an" Apology  for  John  Wiclif,  "shewing  his  con- 
formitye  with  the  now  Church  of  England,  with  answer  to  such  slaun- 
derous  objections  as  have  been  urged  against  him  by  Father  Parsons, 
the  Apologists,  and  others.  Collected  chiefly  out  of  divers  of  works  of 
his,  in  written  hand,  by  God's  especial  providence  remaining  in  the  pub- 
lic library  at  Oxford.  By  Thomas  James,  keeper  of  the  same,  1608." 
The  heads  of  the  fifty  heresies  or  errors  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Men- 
dicants by  Wiclif,  are  given  by  Lewis,  p.  22—30 :  and  the  Reformer 
says,  in  conclusion  of  his  treatise,  that  there  be  "  many  moe,  if  men  wole 
seek  them  well  out;"  and  that  the  "Friars  been  cause,  beginning  and 
maintaining  of  perturbation  in  Christiandome,  and  of  all  evils  of  this 
worlde :  and  these  errors  shallen  never  be  amended,  til  Friars  be  brought 
to  Freedom  of  the  Gospel,  and  clean  religion  of  Jesu  Christ." 
*  Rev.  xii.  4. 


118  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

vigils,  and  other  religious  exercises  of  the  holy  bro- 
therhood, both  during  his  life,  and  after  his  death. 
So  that  they  provided  the  sinner,  who  was  able  to 
purchase  them,  with  a  sort  of  running  dispensation, 
which  always  kept  pace  with  the  utmost  speed  of  his 
transgressions.  It  should,  however,  be  observed  that 
this  imposture  does  not  appear  to  have  been  peculiar 
to  the  Mendicants.  They  practised  it  in  common 
with  other  religious  societies,*  though  possibly  with 
more  shameless  enormity ;  as  Wiclif,  indeed,  very 
plainly  intimates :  for  he  says  of  them,  that  "  they 
passen  bishoppes,  popes,  and  eke  God  himself.  For 
they  grant  no  pardon,  but  if  [except]  men  be  contrite 
and  shriven,  and  of  merite  of  Christ's  passion,  and 
other  saints;  but  friars  maken  no  mention,  nether  of 
contrition,  ne  shrift,  ne  merite  of  Christ's  passion, 
but  only  of  ther  own  good  deeds." 

It  will  easily  be  believed  that  by  his  exertions 
against  the  Mendicants,  Wiclif  was  piling  up  for  him- 
self a  formidable  accumulation  of  wrath.  It  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  these  Orders  would  passively  endure 
any  attack  upon  their  privileges ;  especially  as  they 
were  quite  notoriously  impatient  of  contradiction. 
For  a  time,  their  activity  and  perseverance  seem  to 
have  only  been  augmented  by  opposition.  To  arrest 
the  ruin  with  which  their  intrigues  threatened  the 
Oxford  statute,  University  of  Oxford,  a  statute  had  been 
in  restraint  of  made,  providing  that  none  should  be 
the  Mendicants.  receive(j  into  the  Mendicant  fraternities, 
until  they  should  attain  the  age  of  eighteen  years. 
But  this  enactment  furnished  but  a  weak  defence 
against  the  pertinacity  of  the  Friars.  Their  influ- 
ence and  their  wealth  were  prodigally  employed  to 
defeat  that  salutary  regulation:  and  dispensations 
were  perpetually  issuing  from  Rome,  which  almost 
reduced  its  provisions  to  a  dead  letter.  The  quar- 

*  See  Lewis,  p.  24,  note  (r.)  also  p.  301,  where  a  copy  is  given  of  one  of 
these  letters,  granted  by  the  convent  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  10 
the  mother  of  the  famous  Dean  Colet. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIP.  119 

rel,  accordingly,  continued  to  rage  with  unabated 
violence;  till,  at  length,  in  1366,  it  was  found  expe- 
dient to  submit  it  to  the  decision  of  the  Interference  of 

high  Court  of  Parliament.  The  result  Parliament. 
of  this  application  was,  a  grave  and  salutary  recom- 
mendation, that  the  adverse  parties  should  use  each 
other  with  all  becoming  courtesy ;  and  an  injunction, 
that  none  of  the  Orders  should  receive  among  them 
any  scholar  under  the  age  of  eighteen  years ;  that  the 
Friars  should  take  no  advantage,  nor  procure  any 
bull,  or  any  other  process  from  Rome,  against  the 
Universities ;  that  all  controversies  between  them 
should  be  referred  to  the  Crown  ;  and  that  all  offend- 
ers should  be  punished  at  the  pleasure  of  the  King  in 
Council.  Even  this  measure,  however,  was  insuffi- 
cient to  stop  the  tide  of  encroachment ;  as  an  instance 
of  which,  it  may  be  mentioned,  that  nine  years 
afterwards,  a  bull  was  actually  procured  by  the  Con- 
vent of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  to  dispense,  in 
their  favour,  with  a  statute  of  the  University,  requir- 
ing persons  to  be  regents  in  arts  before  they  proceeded 
doctors  in  divinity.* 

The  energy  of  Wiclif,   as   the   adversary  of  the 
Friars  and  the  champion  of  the  ancient  institutions, 
probably  recommended  him  to  the  So- 
ciety of  Baliol  College,  by  whom  he  was  wiciif  present- 
presented,  in   1361,   with  the  church  of  ed  to  the  rectory 
Fillingham,  a  living  of  considerable  va-  of 
lue,  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  and  in  the  archdea- 
conry of  Stow ;    which   he   afterwards  whicn  he  after. 
exchanged,  in  1368,  for  Lutgershall,  in  wards  exchang- 
the  archdeaconry  of  Bucks,  a  living  of  haiMn^s&s6*3" 
less  value,  but  of  more  convenient  situa- 
tion, as  being  nearer  to  Oxford.     In  the  same  year 
(1361)  he  was  promoted  to  the  warden-         1361. 
ship  of  Baliol ;  which  dignity  he  resigned  ^SJj10  *? 
some  four  years  afterwards,  for  the  head-  Baliol  College. 

*  Lewis,  p.  5,  6.    Cotton's  Abridgement,  p.  102,  103.    Collier,  i.  560. 


120  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

ship  of  Canterbury  Hall,  a  society  founded 
WWlfappoh*,  &bout  that  time  by  Simon  Islep,  then 
ed  to  the  head-  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  This  prelate 
sinp  of  Ca«2J-  was  renowned  for  his  generous  attach- 
founded  by  ment  to  learning,  and  for  the  salutary 
Archbishop  is-  vigilance,  and  even  rigour,  of  his  ecclesi- 
astical administration.  The  selection  of 
Wiclif,  by  such  a  man,  for  the  presidentship  of  his 
new  foundation,  must  have  been  a  signal  and  very 
gratifying  honour ;  which,  however,  he  might  possi- 
bly have  been  almost  tempted  to  decline,  had  he 
foreseen  the  turmoil  and  conflict  in  which  his  pro- 
motion would  involve  him.  The  foundation  of  Can- 
terbury Hall,  it  should  be  observed,  was  designed  for 
a  warden  and  eleven  scholars,  eight  of  whom  were  to 
be  secular  clergymen,  the  remaining  four  members, 
including  the  warden,  were  to  be  monks  of  Christ 
Church,  Canterbury.  The  office  of  warden  was  first 
conferred  on  one  Wodehall,  a  turbulent  and  intracta- 
ble monk,  who  had  already  molested  and  disquieted 
the  university,  by  the  disorderly  violence  of  his  tem- 
per.* In  1365,  for  reasons  wnich  are  not  distinctly 
known, — but  probably  in  consequence  of  the  dissen- 
sions occasioned  by  a  mixture  of  secular  and  mo- 
nastic scholars  in  the  same  institution, — the  founder 
removed  Wodehall  and  his  three  monks,  and  substi- 
tuted in  their  place  John  Wiclif  as  warden,  and  three 
secular  clerks,  William  Selby,  William  Middle- 
worth,  and  Richard  Benger,  to  be  scholars :  and  this 
change  he  is  said  to  have  effected  by  virtue  of  a  clause 
in  the  instrument  of  foundation,  reserving  to  himself 
and  his  successors,  the  power  of  removing  the  warden 
at  pleasure,  in  a  summary  manner,  without  process 
or  form  of  law.f  In  1366,  Islep  died,  and  was  suc- 

*  See  Lewis,  p.  11,  12. 

t  "  Absque  judicial!  strepitu."  These  are  the  words  quoted  by  Lewis, 
but  he  does  not  give  the  context  in  which  they  occur.  Neither  can  I  find 
this  provision  in  the  appendix  to  the  first  volume  of  Vaughan,  in  which 
he  professes  to  give  all  the  documents  which  relate  to  this  case.  Dr, 
Lingard  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  we  are  not  acquainted  with  the 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  121 

ceeded  by  Simon  Langham,  who  was  originally  a 
private  monk,  and  afterwards  abbot  of  Westminster ; 
from  which  office  he  was  promoted  to  the  bishopric 
of  Ely,  and  thence,  by  papal  provision,  to  the  primacy. 
It  is  not  very  surprising  that  one  whose  discipline 
and  life  had  been  among  the  religious  Orders,  should 
be  found  ready  to  entertain  an  appeal  against  a  secu- 
lar warden  of  Canterbury  Hall.  The  appointment 
of  Wiclif  to  that  office,  by  Simon  Islep,  had  been 
made  in  language  which  bore  most  honourable  testi- 
mony to  his  fitness  for  the  post.  It  was,  neverthe- 
less, suggested  that  this  appointment  had  taken  place 
when  Islep  was  disabled,  by  infirmity,  for  the  trans- 
action of  business ;  and  that  it  was,  moreover,  con- 
trary to  the  charter  of  foundation.  On  this  ground, 
the  appointment  of  Wiclif  was  pro- 
nounced void  by  Langham,  and  one  John  ™snt  *$£}*£ 
de  Radyngate  substituted  in  his  place,  ced  void  by 
The  new  president,  however,  held  his  L^ham°P 
situation  but  a  very  short  time ;  for,  the 
Tery  next  month,  Wodehall  was  restored  to  the  war- 
denship;  and  on  Wiclif 's  refusal  to  render  obedience 
to  this  order,  the  Archbishop  sequestered  the  revenues 
of  the  Hall.  Against  this  sentence  of  his  wiclif  appeals 
metropolitan,  Wiclif  appealed  to  the  to  the  Pope, 
Pope ;  a  proceeding  from  which  it  may  be  collected 
that  he  had  not  in  his  mind,  at  that  time,  any  settled 
scheme  of  opposition  to  the  Papal  supremacy  over 
the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  Europe.  A  tedious  pro- 
cess of  between  three  and  four  years  followed.  The 
Papal  decree  at  last  came  forth,  and  not  who  ratlfieg 
only  ratified  the  proceedings  of  Langham,  Langham's  de- 
but" in  defiance  and  contempt  of  the  pro-  cree- 
visions  of  the  original  foundation,  pronounced  that  none 
bat  monks,  had  any  right  "  to  remain  perpetually"  in 
Canterbury  Hall ;  that  all  the  secular  scholars  should 

means  by  which  Wodehall  was  superseded  by  Wiclif:  but  he  does  not 
question  that  he  and  his  monks  were  removed  with  the  approbation  of 
the  founder.  Lingard,  vol.  iv.  p.  214,  215. 


122  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

be  removed;  that  Henry  Wodehall,  and  the  other 
deprived  monks,  should  be  restored  ;  and  that  perpe- 
tual silence  should  be  imposed  on  Wiclif,  and  the 
ejected  secular  clerks. 

The  decision  Notwithstanding  this  decision,  the  re- 
ri.iifirniMii  by  gulars  seem  to  have  felt  their  title  and 
possession  insecure,  until  it  had  been 
fortified  by  the  royal  approbation ;  and  this  was  not 
obtained  until  the  year  1372.  In  this  remarkable  in- 
strument,* it  is  distinctly  recited,  that  the  royal 
license  was  originally  granted  for  an  establishment, 
the  members  of  which  were  to  be  partly  secular  and 
vartly  religious ;  that  this  license  was  first  violated 
Dy  Islep's  substitution  of  seculars  exclusively ;  and 
that  it  was  again  violated  by  the  Papal  decree,  which 
transferred  the  institution  exclusively  to  monks.  On 
this  it  became  a  question,  whether  the  Hall  itself, 
together  with  its  whole  endowment,  were  not  forfeit- 
ed to  the  king,  of  whom  the  advowson  of  Pageham, 
the  chief  source  of  its  revenue,  was  held  in  capite. 
To  remedy  this  doubt,  it  was  thought  absolutely 
necessary  to  have  recourse  to  the  royal  confirmation 
of  the  Pope's  sentence  ;  and  the  instrument,,  accord- 
ingly proceeds  to  state,  that  "  in  consideration  of 
200  marks  paid  by  the  Prior  and  Convent  of  Christ 
Church,  Canterbury,"  (from  which  the  monkish  mem- 
bers were  always  to  be  elected)  "  all  transgressions 
and  forfeitures  were  pardoned,  and  the  Papal  de- 
cree ratified  and  confirmed."  On  the  face  of  this 
document,  therefore,  it  appears,  that  even  if  the 
charter  of  foundation  was  first  violated  by  Islep,f  it 
was  equally  violated  afterwards  by  the  court  of 

*  It  is  printed  at  length  in  Lewis,  p.  297—301,  from  the  MS.  at  Lam- 
beth. No.  104. 

t  So  far  as  the  removal  of  the  warden,  and  the  substitution  of  Wic- 
lif are  concerned,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  royal  license  had  been  vio- 
lated by  Archbishop  Islep.  There  certainly  was  no  such  violation  of  it, 
if,  as  Lewis  asserts,  it  reserved  to  the  founder  the  right  of  removing  the 
warden  at  pleasure,  in  a  summary  way,  absque  judiciali  strepitu.  See 
Lewis,  p.  19.  note. 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  123 

Rome ;  but  that  the  latter  breach  of  the  royal  license 
was  cured  by  a  substantial  bribe  to  the  Crown, 
amounting  in  value  to  between  2000  and  3000  pounds 
of  our  present  money. 

That  Wiclif  should  be  indignant  at  the  iniquity  of 
a  transaction,  so  disgraceful  both  to  the  court  of 
Rome  and  to  the  court  of  London,  may  very  readily  be 
imagined :  and  to  his  disappointment  at  the  decision, 
some  have  not  scrupled  to  attribute  (perhaps  rashly, 
according  to  the  confession  of  a  recent  historian*) 
his  subsequent  opposition  to  the  Papal  authority. 
From  a  consideration  of  the  following  circumstances, 
it  may  reasonably  be  collected  that  something  far 
more  discreditable  than  rashness  may  be  ascribed  to 
those,  who  have  attributed  the  conduct  of  Wiclif  to 
any  such  unworthy  feelings.  In  the  first  place,  not 
the  slightest  allusion  to  the  subject  has  yet  been 
found  in  any  portion  of  his  writings.  So  far  as  they 
have  yet  been  examined,  they  furnish  not  a  fragment 
of  evidence  to  prove  that  the  matter  dwelt  upon  his 
mind,  or  raised  a  spark  of  worldly  or  factious  resent- 
ment. It  may  be  true,  (as  it  is  most  needlessly,  and 
not  very  charitably,  remarked  by  a  Protestant  histo- 
rian of  the  Church,)  that  "  there  was  not  much  of  the 
cross  in  this  disappointment."!  But  it  should  be  re- 
membered, that  Wiclif  never  set  up  for  a  martyr  upon 
the  strength  of  that  disappointment,  and  never  was 
known  to  raise  an  outcry  against  the  sentence.  It 
is  allowed  by  the  same  writer,  that  he  suffered  in  a 
righteous  cause  ;  and  this  is,  probably,  all  that  Wic- 
lif would  have  claimed  for  himself;  and  is,  assured- 
ly, all  that  has  been  claimed  for  him  by  his  most 
favourable  historians.  In  the  next  place  it  must  be 
recollected,  that  his  deep  sense  of  ecclesiastical 
abuse  and  corruption  had,  long  before,  found  utter- 
ance in  his  tract  on  the  Last  Age  of  the  Church,  pub- 
lished in  1356.  There  is,  furthermore,  the  strongest 

*  Lingarrt,  vol.  iv.  p.  215 

t  Milner's  Church  History,  voL  iv.  p.  110. 


124  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

reason  for  believing  that  he  had  openly  committed 
himself  to  decided  hostilities  against  the  Romish 
militia, — the  Mendicant  Orders, — previously  to  the 
commencement  of  the  dispute  relative  to  the  warden- 
ship  of  Canterbury  Hall,  (although  there  may  be  no 
extant  writing  of  his  on  this  subject,  to  wnich  so 
early  a  date  can,  with  absolute  certainty,  be  assign- 
ed ;)  and  that  these  hostilities  were  continued,,  with 
unabated  vigour,  even  while  the  appeal  to  Rome  was 
pending.  But  the  most  triumphant  defence  of  Wic- 
lif  from  the  charge  either  of  vindictive  selfishness, 
or  of  a  worldly  and  calculating  spirit,  is  to  be  found 
in  his  conduct  relative  to  the  Papal  claim  of  sove- 
reignty over  the  realm  of  England,  about  that  time 
revived  by  Pope  Urban  the  Fifth. 

It  will,  of  course,  be  recollected,  that  the  founda- 
tion for  this  claim  was  the  surrender  of  the  British 
crown  by  King  John  to  Pope  Innocent  the  Third. 
Nothing,  perhaps,  could  have  occurred  to  scatter  more 
widely,  among  the  people  of  England,  the  seeds  of 
disaffection  towards  the  Papal  tyranny,  than  this 
most  ignominious  transaction.  That  the  submission 
rendered  to  it  both  by  the  monarch  and  the  people 
was,  in  all  succeeding  times,  bitterly  reluctant,  may 
be  concluded  from  the  fact,  that  the  humiliating  for- 
mality of  homage  was  constantly  evaded,  and  that, 
since  the  days  of  Henry  III.  the  odious  tribute  of 
1,000  marks  was  often  interrupted.  In  1365,  no  less 
1365  than  thirty-three  years  had  elapsed  since 
The  Pope  re-  the  last  payment  had  been  made ;  and 

vjyes  his  claim  tnen  in  eyil  hour  wnen  tne  spirit  Qf  tne 
OJ  homage  and  .  *  •  i  •  \  •>  T* 

tribute  from  nation  was  at  its  highest,  the  Pope  he- 
England,  thought  him  of  demanding  the  arrears, 
and,  with  them,  the  due  performance  of  feudal  hom- 
age. On  failure  to  comply,  King  Edward  the  Third, 
— the  conqueror  of  France,  the  hero  of  the  age,  the 
mirror  of  chivalry — was  apprised  that  he  would  be 
cited  by  process  to  appear  at  the  Papal  court,  there 
to  answer  for  the  default  to  his  civil  and  spiritual 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  125 

sovereign.  The  conduct  of  that  monarch  on  this 
occasion  was  precisely  such  as  became  a  Edward  m 
King  of  England.  He  laid  the  insolent  lays  the  de- 
exactions  of  the  Pontiff  before  his  Par-  p£"fame^fore 
liament  the  next  year,  (1366,)  and  de-  who'^'Soive 
sired  their  advice  on  the  emergency,  that  it  ought  to 
The  answer  of  the  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal,  and  of  the  Commons  of  England  to  this 
demand  of  their  sovereign,  is  such  as,  even  at  this 
distance  of  time,  we  can  hardly  read  without  feeling 
our  hearts  burn  within  us.  "  Forasmuch  as  neither 
king  John,  nor  any  other  king,  could  bring  this  realm 
and  kingdom  in  such  thraldom  and  subjection,  but 
by  common  consent  of  Parliament,  the  which  was 
not  done ;  therefore,  that  which  he  did  was  against 
his  oath  at  his  coronation.  If,  therefore,  the  Pope 
should  attempt  any  thing  against  the  king  by  pro- 
cess, or  other  matters  in  deed,  the  king,  with  all  his 
subjects,  should,  with  all  their  force  and  power,  re- 
sist the  same." 

This  solemn  legislative  renunciation  of  servitude 
and  vassalage,  must  have  smitten  with  sore  amaze- 
ment the  faithful  adherents  of  Pontifical  supremacy. 
Their  displeasure  was  speedily  expressed  by  the  pen 
of  an  anonymous  monk,  who  immediately  on  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  above  resolutions,  published  a  vin- 
dication of  the  Papal  claims,  in  which  he  Widif  chal 
challenged  Wiclif,  byname,  to  confute  lenged  to  defend 
his  arguments  in  support  of  those  preten-  the  resolution  of 
sions,  and  to  maintain  the  recent  decision  Parliament- 
of  the  Parliament.  What  then  is  the  irresistible  infe- 
rence from  the  bare  fact  of  such  a  challenge,  but 
that  Wiclif  was,  at  that  time,  publicly  known  as 
the  avowed  and  determined  adversary  of  Papal  en- 
croachment,— as  the  champion,  whom  of  all  others, 
an  advocate  of  the  Romish  power  would  be  most 
anxious  to  overthrow  ?  The  case,  therefore,  stands, 
simply,  thus.  In  1365,  Wiclif  appeals  to  Rome 
against  his  ejection  from  the  wardenship  of  Can- 
11* 


126  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

terbury  Hall :  in  1367,  while  his  suit  is  pending,  he  is 
publicly  challenged  to  defend  the  independence  of 
his  country  against  Popish  usurpation, — a  challenge 
which  he  promptly  answers;  and  in  1370,  the  Pope 
decides  against  him,  by  a  final  sentence  of  depriva- 
tion. Where,  then,  shall  we -find  language  to  de- 
scribe tne  rashness  of  the  surmise,  that  he  was  driven 
to  extremities  against  the  Papal  authority,  by  his 
exasperation  at  the  judgment  which  finally  thrust 
him  from  his  preferment? 

The  performance  of  his  monkish  an-  ^57 
tagonist  has  not  been  preserved;  his  wiciifs  reply 
reply  to  it  is,  however,  extant,*  in  the  to 
form  of  a  theological  "  determination"  in  Latin ;  and 
we  may  collect  from  it  that  the  first  object  of  his 
adversary  was  to  render  Wiclif  personally  odious  at 
Rpme,  and  thus  to  prejudice  the  suit  then  pending, 
and  to  ruin  his  future  professional  fortunes;  the  se- 
cond to  secure  for  himself  and  his  Order  the  patron*- 
age  of  the  Papal  court ;  and  the  last,  to  establish  the 
Papal  power  in  more  unlimited  license,  and  conse- 
quently, to  effect  a  more  shameless  accumulation  of 
secular  domains  upon  the  religious  houses. t  Un» 
deterred  by  any  regard  for  his  own  personal  interests, 
Wiclif  addresses  himself  to  the  demolition  of  the 
main  strength  of  his  antagonist,  which  he  finds  to  be 
collected  in  the  following  notable  syllogism.  "All 
dominion,  granted  under  a  condition,  is,  by  the  vio- 
lation of  the  condition  dissolved.  But  the  Lord  Pope 
granted  to  our  king  the  realm  of  England,  under  the 
condition  that  England  should  annually  pay  700 
marks,:}:  which  condition  has  from  time  to  time  been 

*  It  is  printed  by  Lewis,  p.  349 — 360,  by  the  title  of  "  Determinatio  quae- 
4am  Magistri  Johannis  Wycliff,  de  Dominio  ;  contra  unum  Monachum." 

t  "Tres  causae  dictae  sunt  mihi,  cur  homo  facit.  Primo,  ut  persona 
mea,  sic  ad  Romanam  Curiam  diffamata,  et  aggravatis  censuris,  ab  eccle- 
siasticis  beneficiis  sit  privata.  Secundo,  ut  ex  hinc  sibi  et  suis  benevolen- 
tia  Romanae  Curiae  sit  reportata.  Et  tertio,  ut,  dominante  Domino  Papa> 
rc-sno  Angliae,  liberius,  copiosius,  et  voluptuosius,  sine  freno  correptionis 
fraternae,  sint  Abbathiis  civilia  dominia  cumulata."  Lewis,  p.  351. 

;  700  for  England,  300  for  Ireland. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF,  127 

disregarded.  Therefore,  the  king  of  England  has 
long  since  fallen  from  the  sovereignty  of  England." 
It  required  no  great  logical  sagacity  to  discover  that 
this  argument  began  by  virtually  assuming  the  prin- 
cipal matter  in  debate;  namely,  that  the  condition 
was  such  as  one  of  the  high  contracting  parties  had 
power  lawfully  to  impose,  or  the  other  to  accept. 
All,  therefore,  that  remained  for  \V"iclif  to  do,  was  to 
show  that  the  condition  in  question  was  utterly  in- 
tolerable. To  this  object  he  addresses  himself  with  a 
somewhat  ironical  gravity.  He  professes,  for  his 
part,  to  be  a  humble  and  obedient  son  of  the  Romish 
^Church,  and  protests  that  he  is  unwilling  to  make 
any  assertion  which  may  sound  injuriously  to  her 
honour,  or  infliet  reasonable  oifence  on  pious  ears. 
He,  therefore,  conceives  it  to  be  more  becoming  in 
'jtim  to  j-efer  the  Reverend  Doctor,  his  antagonist,  to 
*he  solution  of  the  question  which  he  had  heard  to 
£iave  been  given  in  a  certain  assembly  of  secular 
'lords :  and  he,  accordingly,  proceeds  to  detail  the 
sentiments  there  expressed  by  these  illustrious  coun- 
sellors. The  first  of  them,  he  tells  us,  declared  that 
tribute  could  be  due  only  by  right  of  conquest,  and 
Chat  it  should  be  altogether  refused  unless  the  Pope 
could  .extort  .it  by  strength  of  hand ;  which  if  his  Ho- 
liness should  attempt  he  (the  speaker)  would  resist  in 
defence  of  our  right  By  the  next  of  these  senators 
it  was  observed,  that  tta  Pope  ought  to  be  foremost 
in  the  following  of  Christ,  who  had  not  where  to  lay 
his  head :  that  by  the  nature  of  his  office,  he  was 
absolutely  incapacitated  for  receiving  any  such  im- 
post as  he  now  demanded :  that  it  was  their  duty  to 
confine  the  Pope  to  the  observance  of  his  spiritual 
function,  and,  consequently,  to  resist  the  exaction  of 
civil  homage  or  tribute.  If,  said  the  third  debater, 
the  Pope  be  the  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  no?- 
thing  but  the  performance  of  service  can  entitle  him 
to  any  payment.  Service,  however,  whether  temporal 
or  spiritual,  we  have  received  none,  at  the  hand  of 


128  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

his  Holiness.  His  demand  of  payment  must  conse- 
quently fall,  at  once,  to  the  ground.  A  third  part,  or 
more,  of  the  land  of  this  kingdom,  said  the  fourth 
nobleman,  is  held  in  mortmain  by  the  Church  ;  that 
is,  by  the  Pope,  who  claims  to  be  Lord  of  all  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  Church.  It  follows,  then,  that  he  must 
hold  these  lands  either  as  tenant  and  vassal  of  the 
king,  or  else  as  his  liege  lord  and  superior.  That  the 
king  can  have  any  territorial  superior  *  within  this 
realm  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  all  feudal  institu- 
tions; since,  even  when  lands  are  granted  in  mort- 
main, the  rights  of  the  original  lord  are  invariably 
reserved.  The  Pope,  therefore,  must  be  the  king's 
vassal ;  and,  having  continually  failed  to  render  hom- 
age and  service,  has  unquestionably  incurred  the 
forfeiture  appropriate  to  such  default.  On  what 
ground  was  it,  demands  the  fifth  speaker,  that  this 
impost  was  granted  by  King  John  ?  Was  it  for  the 
benefit  of  personal  absolution  granted  to  himself,  or 
for  the  removal  of  the  interdict  laid  upon  his  kingdom, 
or  for  any  forfeiture  incurred  by  the  monarch  ?  If  for 
either  of  the  two  former  reasons,  the  transaction  was 
basely  simoniacal  and  iniquitous.  It  was  simonia- 
cal, — for  it  savoureth  not  of  the  religion  of  Christ  to 
say,  I  will  absolve  thee  on  condition  that  you  pay  me 
so  much  monies  annually  and  for  ever.  It  was  grossly 
iniquitous, — for  what  could  be  more  shameful  than 
to  burden  the  unoffending  people  with  a  penalty  due 
only  to  the  sins  of  the  monarch  ?  But  if  this  mark 
of  servitude  were  imposed  for  the  last  of  the  above 
reasons,  it  must  follow  that  the  Pope  would,  in  the 
most  formidable  of  all  senses,  be  the  liege  lord  of  our 
king.  He  might,  for  any  pretended  forfeiture,  and  at 
any  time,  pluck  the  crown  from  the  head  of  our  sove- 
reign, and  place  it  on  the  brow  of  a  creature  of  his 
own !  And  who,  adds  the  speaker,  is  to  resist  the 
beginnings  of  such  encroachments,  if  we  do  not? 
The  goods  of  the  Church,  said  another,  cannot  be 
lawfully  alienated  without  an  adequate  and  reason- 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  129 

able  consideration.  It  is,  therefore,  quite  monstrous 
that  the  Pope  should  pretend  to  dispose  of  a  realm  so 
broad  and  rich  for  a  paltry  rent  of  700  marks  a  year. 
Besides,  if  there  is  to  be  any  sovereign  lord  of  this 
land,  above  the  king,  that  lord  must  be  no  other  than 
Christ  himself.  The  Pope  it  cannot  be ;  for  the  Pope 
is  liable  to  sin :  and,  according  to  the  doctors  of 
theology,  by  actually  incurring  mortal  sin,  would 
forfeit  all  title  to  dominion.  Enough,  therefore,  it  is 
for  us  to  keep  ourselves  from  mortal  sin,  and  virtu- 
ously to  share  our  possessions  with  the  poor,  in  token 
of  our  holding  them  immediately  of  Christ,  the  only 
sure  and  all-sufficient  liege  Lord,  instead  of  ac- 
knowledging ourselves  dependent  on  one  whose  own 
title  must  be  constantly  open  to  failure  and  defeat. 
It  was  very  forcibly  urged  by  the  last  of  these  speak- 
ers, that  an  improvident  stipulation  of  the  king,  the 
result  of  his  own  judicial  infatuation,  and  affecting 
the  rights  and  interests  of  a  whole  people,  could 
never  be  held  perpetually  binding,  unless  confirmed 
by  the  formal  and  solemn  acquiescence  of  all  orders 
and  estates  of  the  realm.  Such  plenitude  of  au- 
thority and  consent  was,  in  this  instance,  wanting; 
the  whole  transaction,  therefore,  must  be  utterly 
illegitimate  and  void.  From  these  considerations, 
thus  solemnly  urged  by  the  secular  counsellors  of  the 
nation,  Wiclif  conceives  himself  entitled  to  conclude, 
that  the  condition  imposed  by  the  Pope,  and  accepted 
by  king  John,  was  altogether  "  a  vain  thing;"  and 
he  commends  to  his  reverend  adversary  the  task  of 
proving  it  to  be  otherwise.  "  But  if  I  mistake  not," 
he  adds  in  conclusion;  "  the  day  will  first  arrive  in 
which  every  exaction  shall  cease,  before  the  doctor 
will  be  able  to  establish  that  a  stipulation,  such  as 
this,  can  ever  be  consistent  either  with  honesty  or 
with  reason." 

It  is  not,  perhaps,  very  easy  to  decide,  whether 
Wiclif  is  here  to  be  considered  as  reporting  the  sub- 
stance of  a  debate  which  had  actually  taken  place  in 


130  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

the  House  of  Peers,  relative  to  the  demands  of  the 
Pope,*  or  whether  he  is  merely  putting  into  the 
mouths  of  fictitious  and  imaginary  speakers,  such 
arguments,  as  would  naturally  suggest  themselves  to 
intelligent,  high-spirited,  and  patriotic  men.  But, 
however  this  may  be,  it  has  been  the  pleasure  of  a 
living  historianf  to  pronounce,  that  this  "  Determina- 
tion" of  the  Reformer,  "  does  more  honour  to  his 
loyalty  as  a  subject,  than  to  his  abilities  as  a  scholar 
or  a  divine."  His  abilities,  it  may  frankly  be  con- 
ceded, are  not  displayed  to  much  advantage  in  this 
piece,  considered  as  a  specimen  of  artificial  rhetoric, 
or  finished  composition.  The  style,  it  must  be  al- 
lowed, is  sufficiently  barbarous  and  rugged,  and  the 
Latinity  such  as  to  inflict  severe  penance  on  Cicero- 
nian ears, — a  circumstance  not  very  surprising,  when 
it  is  remembered,  that,  in  those  days,  the  graces  of  a 
classic  style  were  little  cultivated,  and,  indeed,  scarce- 
ly known.  If,- however,  the  performance  is  to  be 
estimated  by  its  fitness  to  produce  the  desired  impres- 
sion on  the  public  mind,  it  will  assuredly  be  found 
not  more  honourable  to  his  loyalty,  than  to  his  capa- 
city and  address.  With  a  view  to  the  purposes  con- 
templated by  him,  we  can  scarcely  imagine  a  happier 
form  than  that  into  which  he  has  thrown  the  multi- 
plied objections  to  these  intolerable  claims.  It  must 
have  elated  the  very  soul  of  any  loyal  Englishman  to 
hear  the  reasonings  by  which  the  first  men  in  the  king- 
dom hurled  back  in  the  teeth  of  the  Pontiff  his  pre- 
tensions to  sovereignty  over  their  native  land.  Every 
individual,  with  a  grain  of  common  sense  in  his 
head,  or  a  spark  of  patriotism  and  religion  in  his 
heart,  must  have  felt  his  blood  warmed  by  these 
noble  pledges  of  resistance  to  foreign  arrogance  and 

*  It  is  clear  that  he  does  not  pretend  to  have  been  present  at  the  dis- 
cussion. His  words  are,  " — transmitto  Doctorem  meum  reverendum  ad 
solutionem  hujus  argumenti,  quam  audivi  in  quodam  Concilio  a  Domi- 
nis  Secularibus  esse  datam.  Primus  autem  Dominus,  in  armis  plus 
BirermuSjfertur  taliter  respondisse,  &c.  &c."  Lewis,  p.  351. 

4  Lingard,  vol.  iv.  p.  215,  note  194. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  131 

usurpation.  On  such  an  occasion,  and  for  such  ob- 
jects, what  could  the  scholar  and  the  divine, — the 
peculiar  clerk  and  chaplain  to  the  king,* — do  better, 
than  throw  aside  for  a  time,  the  person  of  a  mere 
professional  disputant,  and  appeal  to  the  understand- 
ing of  his  readers  in  the  language  of  senators  and  of 
statesmen  ? 

It  is  further  asserted  by  the  same  writer,  that  this 
paper  "  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  containing  the  germ 
of  those  doctrines,  which  afterwards  involved  Wiclif 
in  so  much  trouble,  namely,  that  dominion  is  founded 
in  grace,  and  that  the  clergy  ought  not  to  hold  tem- 
poral possessions."!  With  regard  to  the  absurd  and 
pernicious  doctrine,  that  dominion  is  founded  on 
grace,  there  is  but  one  allusion  to  it  in  the  whole 
document.  It  occurs  in  the  argument  of  the  sixth 
speaker ;  and  there  it  appears  in  the  form  of  an  ap- 
peal to  principles,  which  were  admitted  by  the  theo- 
logical doctors  of  the  age  4  That  the  temporal 
endowments  of  the  Church  were  destitute  of  all  sanc- 
tion, either  from  primitive  example,  or  from  the  spirit 
and  design  of  Christ's  religion,  is,  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged, a  doctrine  distinctly  and  uniformly 
maintained  by  Wiclif.  But  a  candid  perusal  of  his 
"  Determination"  must  show,  that  this  was  not  the 
only,  and  certainly  not  the  strongest  ground,  on 
which  he  resisted  the  claim  of  any  Ecclesiastic,  how- 
ever exalted,  to  extort  tribute  from  a  foreign  country. 
As  these  points  will  occasionally  meet  us  again  in 
the  course  of  this  narrative,  it  may  be  proper  to  seize 
the  opportunity  of  remarking,  that  the  opinions  of 
Wiclif,  relative  to  ecclesiastical  property,  appear  to 
have  been  carried  to  a  point,  which  lay  very  far  be- 

*  So  he  describes  himself  in  his  Determination :  "  Ego  cum  sim 
peculiaris  Regis .  Clericus,  talis  qualis,  volo  libenter  induere  habitum 
responsalis,  defendendo  et  suadendo  quod  Rex  potest  justfc  dominari 
regno  Angliae,  negando  tributum  Romano  Pontifici." 

t  Lingard,  vol.  iv.  p.  215,  note  194. 

t  Papa,  dum  fuerit  in  peccato  mortali,  secundum  theolog08y  caret 
dominio.  Lewis,  p.  354. 


132  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

yond  the  limits  of  moderation.  It  is  fit  that  the 
reader  should  be  prepared  for  this :  and  it  is  likewise 
fit  that  his  attention  should  be  fixed  on  the  causes 
which  often  drove  the  Reformer  to  a  dangerous  au- 
dacity of  statement,  in  his  discussions  of  this  subject. 
It  should  never  be  forgotten,  that  he  lived  in  days 
when  the  possessions  of  the  Papal  hierarchy  had 
reached  a  most  portentous  magnitude,  and  had  con- 
verted the  Romish  priesthood,  for  the  most  part,  inta 
a  corrupt  and  indolent  aristocracy.  It  has  beer* 
computed,  that  more  than  half  *  the  landed  property 
of  this  kingdom  was  then  in  their  hands ;  and  no- 
thing but  the  Statute  of  Mortmain  had  prevented  a 
still  further  absorption  of  it.  Now  it  is  one  of  the 
curses  inflicted  on  mankind  by  flagrant  and  invete- 
rate abuse,  that  the  momentum  required  for  its  over^ 
throw  is  such  as  frequently  to  carry  the  assailant 
forward,  beyond  the  boundaries  of  wisdom  and  of  safe- 
ty. If,  therefore,  the  principles  or  the  reasonings  of 
the  Reformer,  respecting  the  worldly  affluence  of  the 
clergy,  should  be  thought  to  savour  of  rashness  or 
extravagance,  a  substantial  apology  may  be  found 
in  the  ruinous  enormity  of  those  evils,  which  called 
him  forth  to  &  life  of  incessant,  perilous,  and  spirit- 
stirring  conflict. 

•  ft  is  stated  that  there  were  in  England  53,215/eoda  militum;  of 
which  the  religious  had  28,000,— more  than  half!  &e  Turner's  History 
of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  413,  note  64. 


LIFE  OF  WICLIFr  133 

CHAPTER  IV. 
1367—1377. 

Petition  of  Parliament  that  Ecclesiastics  should  not  hold  offices  of 
State — Answer  of  the  King — Probable  effect  of  Wiclif  >s  writings 
and  opinions  respecting  this  question — Ifis  sentiments  on  the  em- 
ployment of  the  Clergy  in  secular  offices — He  becomes  a  Doctor  of 
Divinity,  and  is  raised  to  the  Divinity  Chair  at  Oxford — Ins 
Exposition  of  the  Decalogue — Notice  of  his  "Pore  Caitiff" — Notice 
of  the  struggles  of  this  Country  against  Papal  exaction — Papal 
Provisions — Statute  of  Provisors,  and  of  Premunire — Wiclif  sent 
as  Ambassador  to  the  Pope — Presented  to  the  Prebend  of  Aust 
and  the  Rectory  of  Lutterworth — Remonstrance  of  the  "  Good 
Parliament"  agait-.^t  the  Extortions  of  the  Pope — Wiclif  sum- 
moned  to  appear  btfoi  <'-,  he,  Convocation  at  St.  Paul's — He  is  pro- 
tected by  John  of  Gaunt — His  appearance  at  St.  Paul's — The 
tumultuous  scene  which  followed — Death  of  Edward  III.,  and 
accession  of  Richard  II. — Further  complaints  of  the  Parliament 
against  the  Pope — Question,  "whether  the  treasure  of  the  king- 
dom might  not  be  detained,  although  required  by  the  Pope,"  refer' 
red  to  Wiclif— His  answer. 

NOTHING  is  clearly  or  positively  known  respecting 
the  life,  the  studies,  and  the  pursuits  of  Wiclif,  during 
the  interval  which  elapsed  between  his  intrepid  vin- 
dication of  the  independence  of  his  country,  and  the 
year  1371,  which  was  memorable  for  another  assault 
upon  the  honours  and  privileges  of  Churchmen.  In 
that  year,  a  petition  was  presented  by  1371 
the  Parliament  to  the  King,  requesting  Petition  of  Par- 
the  exclusion  of  ecclesiastical  persons  cSXSte?*6* 
from  offices  of  State,  which,  at  that  time,  should  not  hold 
were  almost  entirely  engrossed  by  the  offices  of  state. 
clergy,  conformably  to  a  practice  wnich  had  generally 
prevailed  in  Europe,  ever  since  the  conversion  of  the 
western  nations  to  the  Christian  faith.  Every  one, 
who  has  the  slightest  acquaintance  with  the  state  of 
society  in  the  darker  ages  of  Europe,  is  in  full  posses- 
sion of  the  apology  which  may  reasonably  be  offered 


134  LIFE   OF  WICLIF, 

for  a  usage  which,  in  theory,  it  might,  perhaps,  be 
difficult  to  defend.  In  those  times,  learning  and  in- 
telligence were,  in  a  great  measure,  confined  to  eccle- 
siastics. Throughout  many  a  generation,  it  would 
have  been  vain  to  seek  among  the  laity  for  persons 
qualified  for  the  execution  of  functions  requiring  the 
most  elementary  of  those  accomplishments,  which 
are  now  diffused  almost  throughout  every  class  of  the 
community.  The  coarse  and  ignorant  heroes  of  the 
feudal  ages  positively  gloried  in  their  utter  destitution 
of  all  "  clerk-like"  qualifications.  To  write  and  read 
were  regarded  by  them  as  despicable  vanities,  which 
dishonoured  a  warrior,  and  degraded  him  to  the  level 
of  a  monk.*  With  the  capricious  inconsistency  which 
often  marks  the  semibarbarian,  they  cherished  a  feel- 
ing of  disdain  for  arts,  the  want  of  which  kept  them 
in  a  state  of  humiliation,  and  placed  them  at  the  mercy 
of  a  profession  alternately  the  object  of  their  derision 
and  their  fears.  So  long  as  this  habit  of  thought  or 
feeling  prevailed,  the  highest  secular  responsibilities 
would,  naturally  and  unavoidably,  devolve  upon  the 
sacerdotal  orders.  In  the  fourteenth  century,  however, 
these  days  of  ignorance  and  weakness  were  evidently 
passing  away.  The  monstrous  anomaly  of  consign- 
ing the  offices  of  judicature,  and  the  cares  of  State,  to 
a  class  of  persons,  whose  function  pledged  them  to 
the  guardianship  of  man's  spiritual  and  eternal  inte- 
rests, was  beginning  to  undergo  a  severe  and  unsparing 
scrutiny.  The  world  were  no  longer  content  to  see 
both  Church  and  State  placed  under  the  control  of 
the  mitre  and  the  cowl.  It  was  no  longer  thought  an 
ordinance  of  Nature  or  of  Providence,  that  the  seals 

*  Every  reader  will  at  once  call  to  mind  the  words  of  the  Douglas  id 
Marmion : 

by  heaven  it  liked  me  ill 

When  tire  king  praised  his  clerkly  skill 
Thanks  to  St.  Bothan,  son  of  mine, 
Save  Gawain,  ne'er  could  pen  a  line, 
So  said  I,  and  so  say  I  still, 
Let  my  boy  Bishop  fret  his  fill 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  135 

of  judicial  or  political  office  should  be  borne  by  spi- 
ritual dignitaries.  People  began  to  think  it  strange 
that  the  Chancery  and  the  Exchequer  should  be  occu- 
pied by  functionaries  who  were  ordained  to  a  minis- 
try abhorrent  from  secular  chicanery  and  litigation. 
Still  less  could  they  comprehend  the  profane  abuse 
which  consigned  the  care  of  royal  wardrobes,  or 
buildings,  to  ecclesiastical  surveyors,  or  placed  the 
kitchen  and  the  larder  under  the  control  of  a  ghostly 
clerk! 

These  usages,  however,  like  a  multitude  of  others 
which  had  been  almost  consecrated  by  superstitious 
habit,  retreated  but  very  slowly  before  the  advancing 
intelligence  of  the  age.  In  the  present  instance,  the 
answer  of  the  King  was,  that  he  would  Answer  of  the 
deal  with  the  petition  of  Parliament  con-  Kin§- 
formably  to  the  advice  of  his  council.  His  advisers, 
it  would  seem,  did  not  venture  to  recommend  an  en- 
tire disregard  of  this  popular  feeling ;  for,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  weeks,  the  celebrated  William  of  Wykeham 
resigned  the  great  seal,  and  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  re- 
tired from  the  office  of  treasurer.  This  success,  how- 
ever, was  but  partial  and  temporary.  Little  perma- 
nent impression  was  made  by  it  on  the  obnoxious 
practice,*  which  continued,  with  slight  interruption, 
till  nearly  the  middle  of  the  'seventeenth  century. 
Of  the  ecclesiastics  who  sat  in  the  Court  of  Chancery, 
Bishop  Williams  was  the  last.  Of  clerical  statesmen 
and  prime  ministers  no  instance  occurs  subsequently 
to  that  of  Laud,  who,  probably,  owed  his  ruin,  in  a 

*  The  same  tendency  in  the  Clergy  to  desecrate  themselves  by  every 
species  of  secular  occupation  is  denounced,  more  than  a  century  and  a 
half  later,  by  old  Latimer,  with  his  usual  bluntness.  "  It  is  to  be  lamented 
that  the  prelates,  and  other  spiritual  persons,  will  not  attend  upon  their 
offices.  They  will  not  be  among  their  flocks,  but  will,  rather,  run  hither 
and  thither,  here  and  there,  where  they  are  not  called,  and,  in  the  mean 


ici  UIH^GO  \jyuu  iuc.3  uiai  wiiiuu  uiej'  nave  ttlicctujr.       i>ui,  rviiu 

what  conscience  these  same  do  so,  I  cannot  tell!"    Sermons,  p.  171, 
quoted  in  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  317,  note  22. 


136  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

considerable  measure,  to  the  jealousy  and  disgust 
occasioned  by  his  supposed  intrusion  into  the  political 
councils  of  his  sovereign.  So  inveterate,  however, 
was  this  practice,  that,  when  he  retired  from  the 
management  of  the  treasury,  he  seemed  still  to  be 
utterly  unconscious  that  the  fiscal  office  was  unfit  for 
a  churchman,  and  accordingly  laboured  to  procure  it 
for  Bishop  Juxon;  and  he  expressed  the  highest 
satisfaction  when  he  succeeded  in  transferring  it  to 
such  able  and  upright  administration.  Since  that 
time,  no  high  political  function  has,  in  this  kingdom, 
been  entrusted  to  an  ecclesiastic.  On  the  continent, 
the  usage  survived  considerably  longer. 

If  it  be  asked  how  we  are  to  connect  this  petition 
of  the  Commons,  with  the  history  of  Wiclif,  it  may, 
perhaps,  be  difficult  to  furnish  a  perfectly  conclusive 
answer.  The  want  of  certainty  as  to  me  dates  of 
his  multifarious  writings,  may  render  it 
of  wSSpswri-  nexl  to  impossible,  at  the  present  day,  to 
tings  and  opin-  estimate  correctly  the  influence  of  his 
IffiJiSS1"*  labours  on  that  public  feeling  which  ex- 

UllS  ijuoiioii.  _.         i«»    «         i   «  ff  mi 

pressed  itself  in  this  proceeding.  Thus 
much,  however,  is  clear ;  that  the  language  and  tenor 
of  that  petition,  were  in  full  accordance  with  the 
sentiments  to  which  he  has  given  utterance  in  a  va- 
riety of  his  extant  compositions.  It  is,  moreover, 
quite  indisputable,  that,  at  this  period,  he  was  no  ob- 
scure and  cloistered  speculator.  So  long  ago  as  the 
year  1356,  as  we  have  already  seen,  he  committed 
himself  to  an  open  assault  on  the  worldliness  and 
ambition  of  the  Romish  hierarchy ;  about  the  year 
1360,  he  was  renowned  for  his  prominent  share  in  the 
controversy  with  the  Mendicants;  and  in  1367,  or 
1368,  he  had  further  pledged  himself  to  the  conflict 
against  Papal  usurpation,  by  vindicating  the  resist- 
ance of  the  Parliament  to  the  claims  of  tribute.  These 
considerations,  combined  with  the  notorious  spirit 
and  tenor  of  all  his  publications,  may  reasonably 
warrant  the  conclusion,  that  his  opinions  were  power- 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  137 

fully  instrumental  in  giving  strength  to  the  impulse, 
which  in  1371,  was  carrying  the  public  mind  forward 
in  the  direction  of  improvement.  This  inference 
derives  much  confirmation,  from  the  circumstance 
that  Fox,  the  Martyrologist,  does  not  appear  to  en- 
tertain the  slightest  doubt,  that  Wiclif  is  alluded  to* 
by  one  of  our  ancient  chroniclers,  who  ascribes  to 
heretical  counsels,  the  measures  adopted,  about  this 
time,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  clergy;  and  who 
very  gravely  denounces  those  proceedings  as  the  sins 
which  called  down  upon  the  king  the  troubles  and 
reverses  of  his  latter  days  !  That  the  measure  now 
under  consideration,  was  in  strict  harmony  with  the 
convictions  of  Wiclif,  will  sufficiently  appear  from 
the  following  extracts  from  his  writings.  The  trea- 
tise termed  "  the  Regimen  of  the  Church,"  (which, 
if  not  Wiclif 's  own  composition,  is  most  probably  a 
compilation  from  his  writings)  almost  echoes  the 
language  of  the  Parliament.  "  Neither 
Prelates,"  he  contends,  "  nor  Doctors,  wuSif e  on  the 
nor  Deacons,  should  hold  secular  offices,  employment  of 
that  is,  those  of  Chancery,  Treasury,  secuiar^omceT 
Privy  Seal,  and  other  such  secular  offices 
in  the  Exchequer ;  neither  be  Land-stewards  nor 
Stewards  of  Hall,  nor  Clerks  of  Kitchen,  nor  Clerks 
of  Accounts ;  neither  be  occupied  in  any  secular 
office  in  Lords'  Courts ;  more  especially  while  secu- 

*  "  It  appeareth,"  says  Fox,  "  by  such  as  have  observed  the  order  and 
course  of  times,  that  this  Wiclif  flourished  about  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1371,  Edward  the  Third  reigning  in  England.  For  thus  we  do  find  in 
the  Chronicles  of  Caxton :  '  In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1371,'  saith  he, 
'  Edward  the  third,  King  of  England,  in  his  Parliament,  was  against  the 
Pope's  Clergy.  He  willingly  harkened  and  gave  ear  to  the  voices  and 
tales  ofheretikes,  with  certain  of  his  Counsell,  conceiving  and  following 
sinister  opinions  against  the  Clergie.  Wherefore,  afterward,  he  tasted 
and  suffered  much  adversity  and  trouble.  And  not  long  after,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord,'  saith  he,  '  1372,  he  wrote  unto  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  that  he 
should  not,  by  any  means,  intermeddle  any  more  within  his  kingdom,  as 
touching  the  reservation,  or  distribution  of  benefices ;  and  that  all  such 
Bishops  as  were  under  his  dominion,  should  enjoy  their  former  and  an- 
-cient  libertie,  and  be  confirmed  of  their  metropolitanes,  as  hath  been  aG- 
.customed  in  times  past.'  Thus  much  writeth  Caxton."  Fox's  Acts  and 
Monuments,  in  Wordsworth's  Ecclee.  Biography,  vol.  i.  p.  5,  6. 


138  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

lar  men  are  able  to  do  such  offices."*  The  incon- 
sistency of  such  occupations  with  the  spiritual 
function,  is  exposed  by  reference  to  the  authority 
of  St.  Gregory,  St.  Chrysostom,  and  St.  Jerome, 
and  of  the  apostolic  decrees.  He  further  appeals 
to  the  language  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthian 
Church,  and  to  the  admonition  of  pur  Lord,  addressed 
to  his  disciples.  In  another  of  his  compositions,  he 
complains  that  "  prelates,  and  great  religious  pro- 
fessioners  are  so  occupied  in  heart  about  worldly 
lordships,  and  with  pleas  of  business,  that  no  habit 
of  devotion,  of  praying,  of  thoughtfulness  on  hea- 
venly things,  on  the  sins  of  their  own  heart,  or  those 
of  other  men,  may  be  preserved ;  neither  may  they 
be  found  studying  and  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  nor 
visiting  and  comforting  of  poor  men."  And  the  mi- 
serable effect  of  this  desertion  of  their  sacred  minis- 
try, he  describes  to  be,  that  the  churchmen,  who  are 
suffered  to  become  "  rich  clerks  of  Chancery,  of  the 
Common  Bench,  and  King's  Bench,  and  the  Exche- 
quer, and  Justices,  and  Sheriffs,  and  Stewards,  and 
Bailiffs,"!  contract,  at  last,  such  habits  of  worldli- 
ness,  as  must  utterly  disqualify  them  for  rebuking, 
with  authority,  the  worldliness  of  other  people.  And, 
accordingly,  in  the  complaint  preferred  by  him,  seve- 
ral years  later,  to  the  King  and  Parliament,  he  says, 
"  our  Priests  ben  so  busy  about  worldly  occupations, 
that  they  see  men  better  bailiffs,  or  reves,  than 
ghostly  Priests  of  Jesu  Christ."  Such  was  the  pre- 
valence of  this  admixture  of  sacred  and  profane  em- 
ployments, that  it  would  seem  to  have  had  not  only 
the  sanction  of  the  Crown,  but  the  approbation  and 

*  For  this  and  the  following  extract,  I  am  indebted  to  the  diligence  of 
Mr.  Vaughan.  See  vol.  i.  p.  314.  The  passaff?  quoted  above  is  from 
the  Ecclesice,  Regimen.  Cotton  MSS.  Titus,  D.  L  There  is  a  second 
copy  of  this  Treatise  among  the  MSS.  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin; 
which,  however,  was  mislaid  when  Mr.  Vaushan  wished  to  examine  it. 

t  This  passage  is  taken  from  a  MS.  in  C.  C.  C.  Cambridge,  beginning 
with  the  words,— "  For  three  skills  [reasons]  lords  should  constrain  Clerka 
to  live  in  meekness,  poverty,  and  ghostly  travail."  Vaughan,  roL  I 
p.315. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  139 

encouragement  of  the  lay  patrons ;  who  are  repre- 
sented by  the  Reformer  as  diverting  clerks  from  their 
holy  calling,  by  appointing  them  to  hold  "  vain  offices 
in  their  courts,"  and  thus  deterring  the  more  con- 
scientious among  them  from  accepting  spiritual  bene- 
fices.4 It  would  be  needless  to  ransack  his  writings 
for  further  extracts,  in  condemnation  of  such  degrad- 
ing usages.  Sentiments  similar  to  those  which  have 
been  here  produced,  are,  doubtless,  scattered  in  pro- 
fusion over  his  works:  and  although  we  may  be 
unable  to  assign  the  exact  time  at  which  he  began 
publicly  to  reprobate  these  particular  abuses,  it  would 
be  absurd  to  hesitate  in  reckoning  his  influence  as 
among  the  most  powerful  agencies,  which  were  then 
at  work  to  purify  the  Church  from  this  species  of 
desecration. 

The   year  1372  was  memorable   for     »    1372 
Wiclif 's  promotion  to  the  degree  of  doc-  Wiclif  becomes 
tor  of  divinity,  and  for  his  elevation  to  d°ctorofdivini- 

T       •      i     i      •       c  r\    c     j         A       i        ty>  and  is  raised 

the  theological  chair  of  Oxford.  At  the  to  the  divinity 
time  of  his  advancement  to  this  com-  chair  at  Oxford. 
manding  position,  he  was  in  the  maturity  and  autumn 
of  his  life,  having  then  numbered  about  eight-and- 
forty  years.  It  is  probable  that  many  of  his  scholas- 
tic exercitations,  of  which  a  considerable  number  is 
still  extant,  were  delivered  in  the  regular  course  of 
his  professional  duty :  and,  if  no  other  monument  of 
his  powers  had  been  preserved  to  us,  there  would, 
perhaps,  be  little,  which  should  tempt  posterity  to 
disturb  the  dust  which  ages  might  heap  upon  his 
volumes, — little  which  would  make  good  his  peculiar 
claim  to  the  title  of  Evangelic  Doctor.  His  whole 
life,  however,  showed  that  he  brought  with  him  to 
his  new  station  a  much  loftier  ambition,  than  that  of 
merely  enlarging  or  fortifying  the  barren  domain  of 
metaphysical  abstraction.  The  fashion  of  the  age, 
indeed,  and  the  very  nature  of  his  office,  must  fre- 

•*  In  his  tract  on  the  question,  "  Why  poor  Priests  have  no  benefices." 


140  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

quentlyhave  demanded  such  exhibitions  of  his  learn- 
ing and  acuteness.  At  this  day,  they  will,  perhaps, 
be  regarded  as  little  better  than  a  mere  waste  of  his 
abilities ;  but  it  should  never  be  forgotten,  that  they 
did  substantial,  though  indirect,  service  to  the  cause 
of  scriptural  truth,  since  they  advanced  his  reputa- 
tion, and  greatly  augmented  trie  weight  and  authority 
of  his  opinions.  That  his  thoughts,  however,  were 
not  diverted  by  his  elevation  from  the  weightier  mat- 
Wiciifs  Expo-  ters  °f  Christian  theology,  will  appear 
eitionof  the  De-  from  his  copious  Exposition  of  the  Deca- 
caiogue.  logue,  a  treatise  which  may,  with  con- 

siderable probability,  be  referred  to  this  period  of  his 
life.  A  plain  scriptural  statement  of  the  laws  of  the 
two  tables,  in  the  English  tongue,  may  seem  to  us  no 
mighty  achievement  for  so  renowned  a  doctor.  In 
those  times,  however,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  such  a 
work  was  a  phenomenon  of  great  rarity  and  vast 
importance.  He  himself  tells  us  in  his  preface,  that 
it  was,  then,  no  uncommon  thing  for  men  "  to  call 
God  Master,  forty,  three-score,  or  four-score  years ; 
and  yet  to  remain  ignorant  of  his  Ten  Command- 
ments." And  when  the  Commandments  were  known, 
the  priestcraft  of  the  age  was,  generally,  at  hand,  to 
point  out  some  refuge  of  lies,  in  which  the  trans- 
gressor might  be  safe  from  the  penalty.  To  lay 
the  Divine  law  before  the  world  in  all  its  purity,  and 
all  its  sovereignty  was,  in  such  an  age,  one  of  the 
noblest  services  which  a  teacher  could  render  to  the 
Church.  The  world  must  have  been  startled,  as  at 
the  clang  of  the  trumpet,  to  hear,  as  it  were,  from 
the  chair  of  divinity,  such  words  as  these  :  • '  Covet 
not  thy  neighbour's  goods,  despise  him  not,  slander 
him  not,  deceive  him  not,  scorn  him  not,  belie  him 
not,  backbite  him  not ;  the  which  is  a  common  cus- 
tom now-a-days :  and  so,  in  all  other  things,  do  no 
otherwise  than  thou  wouldst  reasonably  that  he  did 
to  thee.  But  many  think  if  they  give  a  penny  to  a 
pardoner,  they  shall  be  forgiven  the  breaking  of  alj 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  141 

the  commandments  of  God,  and  therefore  they  take 
no  heed  how  they  keep  them.  But  I  say  to  thee  for 
certain,  though  thou  have  priests  and  friars  to  sing  for 
thee,  and  though  thou  each  day  hear  many  masses,  and 
found  chauntries  and  colleges,  and  go  on  pilgrimages 
all  thy  life,  and  give  all  thy  goods  to  pardoners :  all 
this  shall  not  bring  lay  soul  to  heaven.  While,  if 
the  commandments  of  God  are  revered  to  the  end, 
though  neither  penny  nor  half-penny  be  possessed, 
there  shall  be  everlasting  pardon  and  bliss  of  heaven." 
From  the  following  extract  it  will  appear,  that  at  this 
period,  he  had  not  dismissed  from  his  system  the  belief 
of  purgatory .  But  then,  it  is  likewise  evident,  from  the 
language  of  this  passage,  especially  when  combined 
with  that  of  the  foregoing,  that  he  considered  purga- 
tory as  a  place  of  intermediate  suffering,  beyond  the 
reach  of  all  human  control  or  dispensation.  "  God," 
he  desires  us  to  remember,  "  is  all-just ;  why  ?  be- 
cause he  rewardeth  all  good  deeds,  and  punisheth  all 
trespasses  in  due  time,  and  in  due  measure,  both  secret 
and  open ;  neither  may  any  creature  resist  his  punish- 
ing, whether  in  earth,  or  in  purgatory,  or  in  hell."* 
That  in  his  representation  of  our  condition,  as  moral 
beings,  he  had  perpetual  and  faithful  reference  to  the 
One  Great  Sacrifice,  is  obvious  from  these  words : 
"  Have  a  remembrance  of  the  goodness  of  God,  how 
he  made  thee  in  his  own  likeness ;  and  how  Jesus 
Christ,  both  God  and  man,  died  so  painful  a  death 
upon  the  cross,  to  buy  man's  soul  out  of  hell,  even  with 
his  own  heart's  blood,  and  to  bring  it  to  the  bliss  of 
heaven."f  And  again,  after  dwelling  on  the  bitter 
agonies  endured  by  the  Saviour,  he  adds,  "  thou 
shouldst  think,  constantly,  how,  when  he  had  made 
thee  out  of  nought,  thou  hadst  forsaken  him  and  all 
his  kindness  through  sin;  and  hadst  taken  thee  to 
Satan  and  his  service  world  without  end,  had  not 
Christ,  God  and  man,  suffered  this  hard  death  to  save 

•  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  o.  326.  t  Ibid.  p.  322. 


142  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

us.  And  then,  see  the  great  kindness,  and  all  other 
goodness  which  Christ  hath  shown  thee  :  and  thereby 
learn  thy  own  great  unkindness  ;  and  then  thou  shalt 
see  that  man  is  the  most  fallen  of  creatures,  and  the 
unkindest  of  all  the  creatures  that  ever  God  made. 
It  should  be  full  sweet  and  delightful  to  us  to  think 
thus  on  this  great  kindness,  and  this  great  love  of 
Jesus  Christ."*  Among  the  most  crying  enormities 
of  those  times,  may  be  reckoned  the  habitual  pro- 
faneness  which  infected  the  language  of  the  laity, 
and  which,  to  say  the  least,  received  no  effectual 
discountenance  from  the  higher  dignitaries  of  the 
Church.  Wiclif  himself,  in  his  treatise  of  prelates,t 
describes  the  abbot,  or  prior,  riding  "  with  four-score 
horse,  with  harness  or  silver  and  gold,  and  many 
ragged  and  fittred  squires,  and  other  men,  swearing 
heart,  and  nails,  and  bones,  and  other  members  of 
Christ."  And  we  learn  from  Chaucer,t  that  men  often 
seemed  to  glory  "  in  swering,  and  held  it  a  gentery, 
and  a  manly  deed,  to  swere  great  oaths,  all  be  the 

*  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  327. 
t  Cited  in  Lewis,  p.  39,  40. 

J  Parson's  Tale,  p.  183.    Ed.  1687.    And  again,  he  gives  us  the  fol- 
lowing scene : 

Our  host  on  his  stirrops  stoode  anon ;  » 

Sir  Parish  Priest  (quod  he)/or  God's  bones, 

Tell  us  a  tale. 

I  see  well  that  ye  learned  men  in  lore 

Can  muckle  good,  by  Goddis  dignitie. 
The  Parson  him  answered,  Benedicite, 

What  eileth  the  man,  so  sinfully  to  swear? 

Our  host  answered,  O  Jenkin,  be  ye  there? 

Now,  good  men  (quod  our  host)  harkneth  to  me ; 

/  smell  a  Loller  in  the  wind,  (quod  he.) 

Abideth  for  God's  digne  passion, 

For  we  shall  have  a  predication. 

This  Loller  here  will  preachen  us  somewhat 

SQ.IURE'S  PROLOGUE,  p.  47.  Ed  1687. 

So  general  was  the  practice,  that  Knyghton  also  mentions  the  abstinence 
from  such  blasphemies  as  one  sure  symptom  of  Lollardy.  De  Event. 
Angl.  p.  2706.  And  it  does,  unquestionably,  appear  that  the  Lollards 
carried  their  scruples  to  a  ridiculous  excess.  They  held  it  unlawful  to 
swear,  on  any  occasion,  by  a  creature ;  and,  therefore,  they  refused  to 
swear  by  a  book !  See  W.  Thorpe's  Examination.  Wordsw.  EccL  Biogr. 
vol.  i.  p.  186. 


LIFE    OF  WICLIF.  143 

cause  not  worth  a  straw."  Against  this  odious 
abomination,  Wiclif  protests  most  vehemently  in  his 
Exposition.  "  For  the  love  of  Christ,"  he  exclaims, 
"  who  for  you  shed  his  blood,  beware,  henceforth, 
night  and  day,  of  your  oathes'  swearing."  It  was 
sometimes  suggested,  that  a  frequent,  even  though 
somewhat  irreverent,  use  of  God's  holy  name,  is  a 
proof  that  we  hold  him  constantly  in  our  remem- 
brance. This  worthless  apology  he  exposes  to  scorn, 
by  showing  that  a  man  might  just  as  reasonably 
pretend  to  honour  his  prince,  by  the  frequent  repe- 
tition of  his  name,  even  "  though  it  might  be  to  be- 
tray him,  or  teach  others  to  despise  him."  To  appeal 
to  inveterate  custom  as  a  vindication,  he  affirmed 
to  be  precisely  as  if  a  thief  should  plead  his  long 
habits  of  plunder,  in  palliation  of  a  detected  robbery. 
To  infer  from  the  mprcy  of  G-od,  that  "  he  will  not 
damn  men  for  a  light  oath,"  is,  in  effect,  to  forget, 
that  only  for  eating  an  apple  "  against  the  forbidding 
of  God,  Adam,  and  all  mankind,  were  justly  con- 
demned, until  Christ  bought  them  again,  with  his 
precious  blood,  and  hard  death  upon  the  cross."* 

To  these  extracts  I  cannot  forbear  to  ^otice  of  Wic- 
add  a  noble  passage  from  Wiclif 's  other  ijf's  ToreCai- 
Treatise  on  the  Commandments,  which  tlff-' 
appears  in  a  work  of  his,  entitled  "  The  Pore  Caitiff,"! 
a  collection  of  small  tracts,  written  in  English,  as 
the  author  declares,  for  the  purpose  of  "  teaching 
simple  men  and  women  the  way  to  heaven;"  and 
which,  as  Mr.  Baber  remarks,  may,  with  propriety, 
be  termed  the  Poor  Man's  Library.  In  his  exposition 
of  the  first  and  second  commandment,  he  says,  "  Let 
each  man  look  into  his  own  conscience,  upon  what 
he  most  sets  his  liking  and  thought,  and  what  he  is 

*  For  the  above  extracts  from  the  Exposition  of  the  Decalogue,  1  am 
indebted  to  Mr.  Vaughan,  who  has  examined  the  MS.  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum. 

t  The  word  caitiff  is  no  other  than  the  Italian  word  cattivo,  a  captive: 
and  is  used  to  signify  any  one  in  an  abject  or  wretched  condition. 


144  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

most  busy  about  to  please,  and  that  thing  he  lovetft 
most,  whatsoever  it  be:  and  what  thing  a  man 
loveth  most,  that  thing  he  maketh  his  god.  Thus, 
each  man  wilfully  using  deadly  sin,  makes  himself  a 
false  god,  by  turning  away  his  love  from  God  to  the 
lust  of  the  sin  which  he  useth.  And  thus,  when 
man  or  woman  forsakes  meekness,  the  meekness 
which  Christ  Jesus  commandeth,  and  gives  himself 
to  highness  and  pride,  he  makes  the  fiend  his  god, 
for  he  is  king  over  all  proud  folk,  as  we  read  in  the 
book  of  Job.  And  so  the  envious  man  or  woman, 
have  hatred  and  vengeance  for  their  sod.  And  the 
idle  man  hath  sloth  and  slumber  for  his  god.  The 
covetous  man  and  woman  make  worldly  goods  their 
god;  for  covetousness  is  the  root  of  all  evils,  and 
serveth  to  idols,  as  to  false  gods,  as  St.  Paul  saith. 
Gluttonous  and  drunkpn  folk  make  their  belly  their 
god,  for  the  love  and  care  they  have  for  it,  as  St. 
Paul  witnesseth.  And  so,  lecherous  folk  make  them 
a  false  god,  for  the  foul  delight  and  lust  that  reigneth 
in  them.  Thus  every  man  and  woman,  using  deadly 
sin,  breaks  this  first  commandment,  worshipping 
false  gods.  Therefore,  saith  the  great  clerk,  Grost- 
head,  that  each  man  who  doeth  deadly  sin,  runneth 
from  or  forsaketh  the  true  God,  and  worshippeth  a 
false  god.  All  such  are  false  gods  to  rest  upon,  and 
cannot  deliver  themselves,  nor  their  worshippers 
from  the  vengeance  of  the  Almighty  God,  at  the 
dreadful  doom,  as  God  himself  declareth  by  his 
prophets.  "* 

At  the  time  that  this  language  was  uttered,  we 
should  recollect,  the  subtilties  of  the  schoolmen  had 
combined  with  the  grosser  corruptions  of  the  Papacy, 
in  weaving  snares,  and  digging  pitfalls,  for  the  feet 
of  the  unwary  and  the  ignorant.  And  therefore  it 

*  "  The  Pore  Caitiff,"  with  other  portions  of  Wiclif  'a  writings,  hitherto 
in  manuscript,  have  been  recently  printed  by  the  Religious  Tract  Society, 
in  a  volume,  entitled,  "The  Writings  of  the  Rev.  and  learned  John  Wic- 
lif." The  above  extract  will  be  found  in  p.  63  of  that  compilation. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  145 

is,  that  the  Reformer,  in  his  prologue  to  the  com- 
mandments, exhorts  his  readers  to  look  at  the  divine 
testimonies  with  a  constant  view  to  the  amendment 
of  their  lives,  and  to  cast  away  from  them  the  perilous 
sophistries,  by  which  the  precursors  of  Loyola  had, 
even  then,  been  labouring  to  make  the  law  of  God  of 
none  effect.  "  Let  every  man  and  woman,"  he  says, 
"  who  desires  to  come  speedily  to  the  life  that  lasts 
for  ever,  do  his  business,  with  all  strength  of  body 
and  soul,  to  keep  these  commandments ;  and  scorn 
all  arguments  of  false  flatterers  and  heretics,  who, 
both  in  work  and  word,  despise  these  command- 
ments, saying  that  it  is  not  lawful  to  be  busy  in  the 
keeping  of  them ;  yea,  and  saying  that  it  is  needful 
sometimes  to  break  them."  And  then  he  goes  on  to 
compare  this  unhallowed  rivalry  between  the  craft  of 
man  and  the  wisdom  of  God,  to  the  accursed  sor- 
ceries with  which  the  sages  of  Pharaoh  presumed  to 
emulate  the  works,  and  to  resist  the  power,  of 
Jehovah. 

I  am  induced  to  pause  yet  a  moment  longer  upon 
Wiclif 's  Tract,  of  "  the  Pore  Caitiff,"  as  affording 
additional  evidence  of  the  steadiness  with  which 
he  fixed  the  eye  of  faith  and  love  upon  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  whom  he  calls,  "  the  BULL  of  our  everlasting 
pardon,  written  with  all  the  might  and  virtue  of 
God."  It  is  impossible  to  rise  from  a  perusal  of 
those  sections  of  this  treatise,  which  relate  to  "  the 
charter  of  our  heavenly  heritage,"  and  to  the  love  of 
Christ,  without  the  profoundest  conviction  that  his 
hope  was  firmly  staid  on  the  only  name  whereby  men 
can  be  saved,  and  that  there  is  something  approach- 
ing to  pedantry  in  the  question  of  Melanchthon, 
whether  he  had  a  distinct. understanding  of  the  righ- 
teousness of  faith.  That  he  does  not  state  it  with  the 
technical  and  scientific  precision  which  was  intro- 
duced by  later  controversies  on  the  subject,  is  unde- 
niable. But  if  all  the  blessed  power  of  this  doctrine 
Was  not  in  the  heart  and  soul  of  Wiclif,  I  know  not 
13 


146  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

where  we  are  to  look  for  any  other  Christian  man 
who  can  be  said  to  have  been  in  possession  of  the 
secret ! 

The  "Pore  Caitiff"  is  further  interesting  as  an 
eminent  specimen  of  Wiclif's  talents  for  popular  ex- 
position and  illustration.  This  faculty  is  most  sig- 
nally displayed  by  him  in  his  section  on  "  the  Armour 
of  Heaven,  or  o'f  Ghostly  Battle."  "Man's  body," 
he  there  observes,  "  is  as  a  horse  that  bears  his  rider 
through  many  perils.  But  it  were  great  folly  for  any 
man  to  fight  upon  an  unbridled  horse :  and  if  the 
horse  be  wild  and  ill-broken,  the  bridle  must  be 
heavy  and  the  bit  sharp,  to  hold  him  in.  This  bridle 
is  abstinence,  with  which  his  master  shall  restrain 
him  to  be  meek,  and  bow  to  his  will.  The  bridle, 
however,  must  be  managed  by  wisdom ;  for  else  the 
horse  will  fail  at  the  greatest  need,  and  harm  his 
master,  and  make  him  lose  his  victory.  Further, 
this  bridle  must  have  two  reins,  both  strong,  and 
even,  so  that  neither  pass  the  other  in  length.  The 
one  rein  is  too  loose  when  thou  lettest  thy  flesh  have 
his  will  too  much.  The  other  is  held  too  straight, 
when  thou  art  too  stern  against  thine  own  flesh ;  for 
then  thou  destroyest  his  strength  and  might,  so  that, 
to  help  thee  as  it  should^,  it  may  not.  Therefore, 
sustain  thy  horse  that  he  faint  not,  neither  fail  thee 
at  thy  need;  and  withdraw  from  him  that  which 
might  turn  thee  to  folly. 

"  That  thy  seat  may  be  both  steadfast  and  seemly, 
thy  horse  needs  to  have  a  saddle  :  and  this  saddle  is 
no  other  than  mansuetude,  or  meekness  of  spirit, 
whereby  thou  mayst  encounter  all  the  roughness  and 
peril  of  the  way  with  the  semblance  of  ease  and  mild- 
ness. This  virtue  of  mildness  of  heart  and  appear- 
ance makes  man  gracious  to  God,  and  seemly  to 
man's  sight,  as  a  well  fitted  saddle  maketh  a  horse 
seemly  and  praisable. 

"  Two  spurs  it  is  needful  that  thou  have,  and  that 
they  be  sharp,  to  prick  thy  horse  if  needful,  that  he 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  147 

loiter  not  by  the  way ;  and  these  two  spurs  are  love 
and  dread.  The  right  spur  is  the  love  that  God's 
dear  children  have  for  the  weal  that  shall  never  end. 
The  left  spur  is  the  dread  of  the  pains  of  purgatory 
and  of  hell,  which  are  without  number,  and  never 
may  be  told  out.  And  if  the  right  spur  of  love  be  not 
sharp  enough  to  make  him  go  forward  in  his  journey, 
prick  him  with  the  left  spur  of  dread,  to  rouse  him," 
It  will  readily  be  allowed  that  this  sort  of  homely 
and  familiar  imagery,  followed  up,  as  it  is  in  this 
tract,  with  all  the  urgency  of  solemn  exhortation,  is 
admiraby  adapted  both  to  win,  and  to  fix,  the  atten- 
tion of  plain  unlettered  men.  And  that  "  the  Pore 
Caitiff"  was  highly  prized  as  a  work  of  popular  use- 
fulness, appears  from  the  care  that  was  taken  to  pre- 
serve and  circulate  it.*  One  blemish,  indeed,  the 
reader  will  have  noticed  in  this  otherwise  admirable 
composition ;  it  furnishes  another  proof  that  the  doc- 
trine of  purgatory  was  not  yet  ejected  from  his  mind. 
A  subsequent  part  of  the  tract  contains  a  description 
of  the  intermediate  sufferings  to  be  incurred  by  sins 
which  are  not  of  mortal  enormity;  accompanied, 
however,  with  much  salutary  caution  against  all 
abuse  of  the  distinction  between  deadly  and  venial 
transgression.  Purgatory,  indeed,  forms  a  depart- 
ment of  theology  respecting  which  the  mind  of  Wic- 
lif  was  imperfectly  settled,  even  to  the  latest  period 
of  his  life.  It  should,  nevertheless,  be  remembered 

*  The  following  note,  which  is  written  at  the  end  of  one  of  the  manu- 
scripts of  the  "Pore  Caitiff,"  in  the  British  Museum,  (MS.  Harl.  2335.) 
show?  the  value  attached  to  it  in  the  period  preceding  the  Reformation,  % 
and  the  methods  resorted  to  for  its  circulation  : 

"This  book  was  made  of  the  goods  of  John  Gamalin,  for  a  common 
profit,  that  the  person  that  has  this  book  committed  to  him  of  the  person 
that  had  power  to  commit  it,  have  the  use  thereof  for  the  time  of  his  life, 
praying  for  the  soul  of  the  same  John :  and  that  he  that  hath  this  afore- 
said use  of  the  commission,  when  he  occupieth  it  not,  leave  he  it,  for  a 
time,  to  some  other  person.  Also,  that  the  person  to  whom  it  was  com- 
mitted for  the  term  of  life,  under  the  foresaid  conditions,  deliver  it  to 
another  for  the  term  of  his  life.  And  so  he  it  delivered  and  committed 
from  person  to  person,  man  or  woman,  so  long  as  the  book  endureth." 
Writings  of  Wiclif,  ut  Supra,  p.  122. 


148  LIFE    OF  WICLIF. 

that  he  always  carefully  divested  it  of  those  perver- 
sions which,  in  the  hands  of  the  Romish  Church, 
actually  thrust  the  Son  of  man  from  his  judgment- 
seat.  And  if  he  failed  to  cast  into  the  sea  every 
fragment  of  "mountainous  error,"  which  ages  of 
superstition  had  been  piling  over  the  truth,  we  are 
still  bound  to  recollect,  with  admiration,  the  gigantic 
strength  displayed  in  his  actual  efforts  for  her  de^ 
Jiverance.  The  above  specimens  may  alone  be  suffi- 
cient to  show  us  that  the  spirit  which  guided  his 
meditations  was  at  mortal  variance  with  the  spirit 
which  presided,  as  well  in  the  schools  of  theology, 
as  in  the  high  places  of  the  Church.  A  voice  was 
crying  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  language  of  accusa- 
tion and  defiance,  against  the  mystery  of  iniquity, 
which  was  then  working,  and  had  been  working  for 
centuries,  and  had  been  forging  shameful  fetters  for 
the  immortal  souls  of  men.  A  hand  was  toiling  to 
plant  that  standard  which  was  afterwards  to  be 
widely  unfurled  by  Luther,  as  the  rallying  point  to 
the  nations  of  Christendom — as  a  signal  for  the  resur* 
rection  of  the  mind  of  Europe.  There  breathes  in 
the  passages  above  recited,  as  well  as  in  all  his  popu- 
lar writings,  a  brave  simplicity,  an  utter  contempt  of 
the  "  old  drudging  trade  of  outward  conformity."  It 
must  even  then  have  been  felt  that  a  minister  was 
descending  to  trouble  the  stagnant  waters  of  the  an- 
cient superstition,  and  to  teach  the  impotent  to  seek 
for  strength  in  the  elements  which  that  agitation 
would  cast  up.  It  is,  therefore,  far  from  wonderful 
that  the  ruling  powers  went  even  as  at  other  times,  to 
seek  for  enchantments  against  this  formidable  spirit: 
and  that  they  earnestly  charged  their  diviners  and 
their  seers  to  curse  him,  whom  God  had  not  cursed,  and 
to  defy  him,  whom  the  Lord  had  not  defied.  For  a  little 
while  their  devices  were  permitted  to  prevail ;  but  in 
(rod's  good  time  the  season  of  healing  and  refresh- 
ment came  forth  from  his  presence,  and  Zion  re- 
newed her  strength,  and  shook  herself  from  the  dust. 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  149 

The  testimony  which  Wiclif  was  in-  Notice  of  the 
cessantly  lifting  up  against  the  Romish  struggles  of  this 
oppressions  and  corruptions,  was,  at  this  p^ai'exSaiL 
time,  in  full  harmony  with  the  tone  of 
public  feeling  throughout  the  nation.  From  the  days 
of  the  Conqueror  to  that  hour,  a  struggle  had  been 
carried  on  between  the  sovereignty  of  England,  and 
the  supremacy  of  Rome.  The  conflict  might  have 
been  marked  by  less  disgraceful  vicissitudes,  had  all 
our  monarchs  brought  to  it  a  hardihood,  and  dignity 
of  soul,  like  that  of  the  Norman.  He  never  would 
suffer  the  bishop  elected  at  Rome  to  be  even  named 
as  Pope,  in  his  dominions,  without  his  express  sanc- 
tion. No  Papal  bull,  or  mandate,  or  instrument, 
would  he  allow  to  be  circulated  in  his  kingdom,  until 
it  had  been  first  inspected  by  himself.  When  the 
Legate  of  Gregory  VII.  demanded,  that  he  should  do 
homage  to  the  Roman  See,  his  answer  was,  "  I  have 
been  unwilling  to  do  fealty  to  you  hitherto,  and  I 
will  not  do  it  now ;  because  I  have  never  promised 
it,  nor  do  I  find  that  any  of  my  predecessors  perform- 
ed it  to  yours."  It  is  melancholy  to  pass  on  from 
his  noble  example  to  that  of  his  degenerate  de- 
scendant, the  infatuated  John,  who  laid  his  kingdom 
at  the  feet  of  an  Italian  priest.  From  that  time  the 
deluge  of  encroachment  was  continually  rising. 
Some  feeble  embankments  were,  occasionally,  raised 
against  it.  But,  nevertheless,  the  waters  rose,  till 
they  threatened  to  overtop  the  summits  of  all  tempo- 
ral authority.  The  harpies  of  avarice  kept  pace  with 
the  demon  of  ambition.  England,  according  to  the 
saying  of  one  of  the  Pontiffs,  was,  as  it  were,  the 
Pope's  garden  of  delight ;  and  well  did  he  and  his 
successors  show  the  sincerity  of  their  reliance  on  her 
inexhaustible  fruitfulness  !  The  spirit  of  her  nobles, 
and  even  of  her  churchmen,  would  often  manifest 
itself  by  loud  and  indignant  outcries,  when  the  hand 
of  the  plunderer  was  upon  them.  But  the  work  of 
pillage,  nevertheless,  went  on ;  till,  at  last,  the  im- 


150  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

poverishment  and  ignominy  which  it  inflicted  became 
too  great  for  human  endurance. 

One  process  by  which  the  life-blood  of  the  country 
Papal  provi-  was  drained  out,  was  the  practice  of  Pa- 
aions.  pal  provision ;  a  prerogative,  by  virtue 

of  which  the  Pontiff,  at  his  pleasure,  could  declare  the 
next  vacancy  of  any  ecclesiastical  benefice  or  dig- 
nity in  the  kingdom,  to  be  at  his  own  disposal.  The 
effect  of  this  custom  was  to  waste  an  enormous  por- 
tion of  the  revenues  of  the  Church  upon  foreigners, 
often  the  worthless  creatures  of  the  Pope ;  men,  and 
frequently  boys,  who  neither  knew  the  language, 
nor  touched  me  soil,  of  the  realm  upon  whose  re* 
sources  they  were  thriving,  Another  consequence 
was,  the  frequency  of  appeals  to  Rome,  by  which 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  royal  courts  was  contemptu- 
ously, and  most  perniciously,  invaded.  The  year 
1350  was  rendered  memorable  by  the  establishment 
of  two  noble  bulwarks  against  these  usurpations, 
statutes  of  Pro-  The  celebrated  Statute  of  Provisors,  de» 
visors,  and  of  clared  void  any  collation  to  dignity,  or 
Premunire.  benefice  which  should  be  at  variance 
with  the  rights  of  the  king,  the  chapters,  or  any  other 
patron.  The  Statute  of  Premunire  forbade,  under 
the  severest  penalties,  the  introduction  or  circula* 
tion  of  bulls  or  mandates,  prejudicial  to  the  king  or 
people ;  and  all  appeals  to  the  Papal  Court,  in  ques* 
tions  of  property,  from  the  judgment  of  the  English 
tribunals. 

The  subsequent  complaints  of  Parliament,  never* 

theless,  show  that,  hitherto,  the  enactments  of  tempo-? 

ral  legislatures  were,  to  the  giant  strength  of  Rome, 

but  as  q,  thread  of  tow  when  it  toucheth  the  fire.     In. 

ie73          1373  the  declining  and  feeble  monarch 

was  again  assailed  by  the  clamours  of 

his  subjects ;  and  the  result  was,  an  almost  abortive 

embassy  to  Avignon,  (where  Gregory  XI.  then  re-? 

sided,)  to  obtain  redress  of  those  grievances  and  in-* 

suits,  which,  in  defiance  of  the  two  laws  above  men* 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 


« 


tioned,  were  still  heaped  upon  the  Church  and  State  of 
England.  In  the  following  year  an  in-  1374 
quiry  was  instituted  into  the  number  and 
value  of  English  benefices,  then  occupied  by  French- 
men, Italians,  and  .other  aliens  ;  and  the  result  exhi- 
bited an  outrageous  extent  of  abuse,  which  demanded 
one  more  vigorous  effort.  Another  embassy  was 
accordingly  resolved  on,  in  order  to  renew  negotia- 
tions with  the  court  of  Rome.  The  name  of  Wiclif 
appears  second  on  the  commission  ap-  wichf  sent  as 
pointed  for  that  purpose  ;  a  circumstance  an  Ambassador 
which  manifests,  beyond  all  question,  to 
the  importance  and  notoriety  of  his  previous  labours, 
and  the  confidence,  both  of  the  Crown  and  the  Parlia- 
ment, in  his  intrepidity  and  wisdom.  The  seat  of 
these  conferences  was  fixed  at  Bruges, — a  city  of 
great  extent,  and  high  commercial  grandeur ;  and, 
moreover,  at  a  very  convenient  distance  from  the 
Papal  Court ;  for  the  spiritual  governors  of  the  world 
seem,  in  those  days,  to  have  been  most  wisely  re- 
luctant to  expose  the  manners  and  habits  of  them- 
selves or  their  dependents  to  the  close  inspection  of 
enlightened  or  virtuous  strangers.  The  usual  chica- 
nery of  the  Romish  policy,  together  with  the  increas- 
ing infirmities  and  ruined  influence  of  Edward  III., 
protracted  these  negotiations  for  a  period  of  two 
years ;  and,  after  all,  deprived  them  of  any  effectual 
result.  Their  first  fruits  were  a  series  of  bulls,  issued 
in  September,  1375,  containing  a  very  partial  remedy 
of  the  alleged  enormities ;  and  their  final  issue  was 
an  agreement  that,  in  future,  the  Pope  should  desist 
from  reservations ;  and  that  the  King  should  desist 
from  conferring  benefices  by  his  writ  of  Quare  Impe* 
dit.  Respecting  the  independence  of  the  Chapters 
on  Papal  Confirmation,  in  the  exercise  of  their  right 
of  election,  not  a  syllable  is  to  be  found  in  the  treaty. 
And  that  something  like  treachery  had  crept  into  the 
proceedings  would  appear  from  the  fact,  that  John, 
Bishop  of  Bangor,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  com- 


152  LIFE   OF  WICL1F. 

mission,  was  translated,  by  the  Pope's  bull,  to  Here- 
ford, in  1375,  and  thence  to  St.  David's,  by  the  same 
authority,  in  1389.*  By  this  attempt,  therefore,  the 
hide  of  the  monster  was,  after  all,  but  slightly  punc- 
tured, and  the  "  poor  malice"  of  its  adversaries  re- 
mained still  in  danger  of  its  fangs.  One  beneficial 
consequence,  however,  most  probably  must  have  re- 
sulted from  the  proceeding.  It  must  have  opened  to 
Wiclif,  in  more  distinct  revelation,  the  serpentine 
mysteries  of  Pontifical  diplomacy.  It  must  have 
brought  his  eye  somewhat  closer  to  the  deformity  of 
the  Queen  and  Mother  of  all  the  Churches ;  and  must 
have  moved  his  spirit  to  a  sterner  conflict  with  her 
abominations.  That  he  enjoyed  the  unabated  respect 
and  confidence  of  his  sovereign,  during  these  services, 
may  be  concluded  from  the  circumstance,  that,  in 
November,  he  was  presented  by  the  Crown  to  the 
Prebend  of  Aust,  in  the  Collegiate  Church  of  West- 
bury  within  the  diocese  of  Worcester ;  and,  some 

1375  time  afterwards  to  the  Rectory  of  Lutter- 
Wiciif  present-  worth,  in  Leicestershire,  an  appointment 
hjjnd°  JJe  ^r*  which,   for  that  turn,  devolved  on  the 
andthejiecun-y  Crown,  in  consequence  of  the  minority 
of  Lutterworth.  Of  tne  patron,  Lord  Henry  de  Ferrars. 

1376  The  next  assault  on  the   Pontifical 
Remonstrance    pretensions  was  made  by  the   "  Good 
of  the   -Good  parliament,"  which  met  in  the  year  1376. 

1  an  lament,    a-   T  i  j  i       i      •      •         p  i*    i«  r» 

gainst  the  ex-  It  would  be  deviating  from  the  object  of 
tortions  of  the  tnis  narrative  to  plunge  into  the  labyrinth 
of  those  politics,  which  engaged  that 
assembly  in  measures  of  determined  opposition  to 
the  administration  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  John 
of  Gaunt ,  or  to  enlarge  on  the  growing  importance 
of  the  Commons,  which  made  them  formidable  in- 
struments of  hostility  against  an  unpopular  govern- 
ment,, It  is  more  to  our  purpose  to  notice  the  energy 
with  which  they  addressed  themselves  to  the  duty  of 

•  Lewis,  p.  34,  note  (a.) 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  153 

exposing  and  denouncing  the  ecclesiastical  oppres- 
sions which  had  long  infested  the  country ;  and  which 
had  caused  it,  like  a  nation  of  patient  and  servicea- 
ble asses,  (to  use  the  contemptuous  language  of  the 
Italians*)  to  "  crouch  beneath  two  burdens" — impo- 
verishment and  disgrace.  In  the  remonstrance  which 
they  presented  to  the  Crown,  they  distinctly  ascribed 
the  misery,  exhaustion,  and  depopulation  of  the  realm, 
to  the  tyranny  and  extortion  of  the  Romish  hierar- 
chy,!— and  they  concluded  by  demanding  that,  in 

•  Fox,  p.  482.    Ed.  1684. 

tThis  formidable  indictment  is  somewhat  too  long  for  insertion  in 
the  text.  It  is,  however,  far  too  important  to  be  altogether  suppressed. 
It  is,  therefore,  here  given  in  the  form  of  a  note,  and  is  eminently  worthy 
of  the  reader's  attention,  as  a  full  and  authentic  record  of  the  evils  inflicted 
by  this  organ!  zed  scheme  of  plunder.  Some  little  exaggeration  may,  pos- 
sibly, here  and  there,  have  crept  into  their  statements:  but  there  can  be 
no  reasonable  doubt  of  the  correctness  of  the  representation,  in  all  its  sub- 
stantial  particulars. 

It  was  remonstrated  by  them,  "  that  the  tax  paid  to  the  Pope  of  Rome 
for  ecclesiastical  dignities  doth  amount  to  five-fold  as  much  as  the  tax  of 
all  the  profits,  as  appertain  to  the  King,  by  the  year,  of  this  whole  realm: 
and  for  some  one  bishopric,  or  other  dignity,  the  Pope,  by  way  of  transla? 
tion  and  death,  hath  three,  four,  or  five  several  taxes :  that  the  brokers  of 
that  sinful  city,  for  money,  promote  many  caitiffs,  being  altogether  un- 
karned  and  unworthy,  to  a  thousand  marcs  living  yearly  ;  whereas  the 
learned  and  worthy  can  hardly  obtain  twenty  marcs ;  whereby  learning 


.  jvice,  and  convey  a  . 
Jews  or  Saracens.  It  is  therefore,  say  they,  to  be  considered,  that  the  lavi 
of  the  Church  would  have  such  livings  bestowed  for  charity  only,  without 
praying  or  paying :  that  reason  would  that  livings  given  of  devotion 
should  be  bestowed  in  hospitality :  that  God  hath  given  his  sheep  to 
the  Pope  to  be  pastured,  and  not  shorn  or  shaven :  that  lay-patrons  per- 
ceiving this  simony  and  covetuousness  of  the  Pope,  do  thereby  learn  to 
sell  their  benefices  to  beasts,  no  otherwise  than  Christ  was  sold  to  the 
Jews :  that  there  is  none  so  rich  a  prince  in  Christendom,  who  hath  the 
fourth  part  of  so  much  treasure  as  the  Pope  hath  out  of  this  realm,  for 
churches,  most  sinfully.  They  further  remonstrated,  that  the  Pope's  col- 
lector, and  other  strangers,  the  King's  enemies,  and  only  leiger  spies  for 
English  dignities,  and  disclosing  the  secrets  of  the  realm,  ought  to  be  dis- 
charged :  that  the  same  collector  being  also  receiver  of  the  Pope's  pence, 
keepeth  an  house  in  London,  with  clerks  and  officers  thereunto  belonging, 
as  if  it  were  one  of  the  King's  solemn  courts,  transporting  yearly  to  the 
Pope  twenty  thousand  marcs,  and  most  commonly  more  :  that  Cardinals 
ana  other  aliens  remaining  at  the  Court  of  Rome,  whereof  one  Cardinal 
is  a  Dean  of  York,  another  of  Salisbury,  another  of  Lincoln,  another  Arch- 
deacon of  Canterbury,  another  Archdeacon  of  Durham,  another  Arch- 
deacon  of  Suffolk,  and  another  Archdeacon  of  York ;  another  Prebendary 


154  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

order  to  save  the  country  from  utter  barbarism  and 
desolation,  the  law  against  Papal  provisions  should 
be  rigorously  enforced;  that  no  Papal  " Collector  or 
Proctor  should  remain  in  England,  on  pain  of  life  and 
limb;  and  that  no  Englishman,  on  the  like  pain, 
should  become  such  collector,  or  remain  at  Rome." 

of  Thane  and  Nassington;  another  Prebendary  of  York,  in  the  diocese 
of  York,  have  divers  other  the  best  dignities  in  England,  and  have  sent 
over  yearly  unto  them  twenty  thousand  nvirrs,  over  and  above  that  which 
English  brokers  lying  here  have:  that  the  Pope,  to. ransom  Frenchmen, 
the  King's  enemies,  who  defend  Ix>mbardy  for  him,  doth  always,  at  his 
pleasure,  levy  a  subsidy  of  the  whole  Clergy  of  England:  that  the  Pope, 
for  more  gain,  maketh  sundry  translations  of  all  the  bishoprics,  and  other 
dignities,  within  the  realm :  that  the  Pope's  collector  hath  this  year  taken 
to  nis  use  the  first-fruits  of  all  benefices:  Miat  therefore  it  would  be  good 
to  renew  all  the  statutes  against  provisions  from  Rome,  since  the  Pope 
reserveth  all  the  benefices  of  the  world  for  his  own  proper  gift,  and  hath 
within  this  year,  created  twelve  new  Cardinals ;  so  that  now  there  are 
thirty,  whereas  there  were  wont  to  be  but  twelve  in  all ;  and  all  the  said 
thirty  Cardinals,  except  two  or  three,  are  the  King's  enemies :  that  the 
Pope,  in  time,  will  give  the  temporal  manors  or  dignities  to  the  King's 
enemies,  since  he  daily  usurpeth  upon  the  realm,  and  the  King's  regality : 
that  all  houses  and  corporations  of  religion,  which,  from  the  King,  ought 
to  have  free  elections  of  their  heads,  the  Pop*1  hath  now  accroached  the 
same  unto  himself:  that  in  all  legations  from  the  Pope  whatsoever, 
the  English  beareth  the  charge  of  the  Legates ;  and  all  lor  the  goodness 
of  our  money.  It  also  appeareth,  they  say,  that  if  the  money  of  the  realm 
were  as  plentiful  as  ever,  the  collector  aforesaid,  with  the  Cardinals* 
Proctors,  would  soon  convey  away  the  same.  For  remedy  whereof, 
they  advise  it  may  be  provided,  that  no  such  collector  or  proctor  do  remain 
in  England,  upon  pain  of  life  and  limb  ;  and  that,  on  the  like  pain,  no 
Englishman  become  any  such  collector  or  proctor,  or  remain  at  the 
Court  of  Rome.  For  better  information  hereof,  and  namely,  touching 
the  Pope's  collector ;  for  that  the  whole  Clergy,  being  obedient  to  him, 
dare  not  displease  him ;  they  say,  it  were  good  that  Dr.  John  StrensalL 
parson  of  St  Botolph's  in  Holborne,  be  sent  for  to  come  before  the  Lords  and 
Commons  of  this  Parliament,  who,  being  straitly  charged,  can  declare  much 
more,  for  that  he  served  the  same  collector  in  house  five  years."  It  was 
further  complained,  that  "by  this  unbridled  multitude  of  apostolical  pro- 
visions, as  the  Pope's  disposals  of  church-benefices  by  his  bulls  were 
called,  the  lawful  patrons  of  the  several  benefices  were  deprived  of  their 
right  of  collation  or  presentation ;  the  noble  and  learned  natives  of  Eng- 
land would  be  wholly  excluded  from  all  church-preferment,  however  of 
such  as  was  valuable  or  honourable,  so  that,  as  was  observed  before,  there 
would  in  time  be  a  defect  of  council  as  to  those  matters  that  concern  the 
spiritualise,  and  none  would  be  found  fit  to  be  promoted  to  ecclesiastical 
prelacies :  that  divine  worship  would  be  impaired,  hospitalitie  and  alma 
would  be  neglected,  contrary  to  the  primary  intention  and  design  of 
the  founders  of  the  churches :  that  the  legal  rights  of  the  respective 
churches  would  be  lost,  the  church  buildings  would  all  go  to  ruine,  and 
the  devotion  of  the  people  be  lessened  and  withdrawn. "  See  Fox;  p.  48% 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  155 

And  these  demands  were  vigorously  fol- 
lowed  up,  in  the  Parliament  of  the  next 
year,  by  a  petition,  that  all  provisors,  and  their  minis- 
ters, should  be  out  of  the  King's  protection;  that 
remedy  might  be  had  against  such  Cardinals  as  had 
purchased  reservations  to  the  value  of  20,000,  or 
30,000  scrutes  of  gold — and  also  against  the  Pope's 
collector,  a  Frenchman,  who  was  then  residing  in 
London,  and  conveying,  annually,  to  the  Pope  20,000 
marks,  or  20,OOOZ. ;  and  who,  that  year,  was  actually 
gathering  the  first-fruits  throughout  the  kingdom.  To 
this  request  the  answer  was,  that  redress  had  been 
promised  by  the  Pope ;  and  that,  if  he  should  fail  to 
perform  it,  the  Statutes  and  Ordinances  should  be 
observed.* 

The  year  1377  was  remarkable  for  the 
first  violent  eruption  of  that  displeasure 
which  Wiclif  had  been  long  heaping  up  for  himself 
by  his  labours  for  the  Reformation  of  the  Church. 
He  had  returned  from  Bruges  with  a  firm  persuasion, 
that  the  Pontiff,  the  proud,  worldly,  priest  of  Rome, 
was  "  the  most  cursed  of  clippers  and  purse-kervers :" 
and  he,  probably,  continued,  more  loudly  than  ever, 
his  denunciations  against  the  whole  mechanism  and 
fabric  of  his  power.  The  English  hierarchy  felt 
themselves,  at  last,  called  upon  to  silence  and  to 
chastise  the  pertinacious  heretic.  And,,  accordingly, 
in  the  Convocation  held  on  the  third  of  February, 

1377,  a  citation  was  issued  for  his  ap-  „..  rf 

^  o*   T*     u  i-        •  1     Wiclif       sum- 

pearance  at  St.  Pauls,  on  the  nineteenth  immed  to   ap- 
day  of  the  same  month,  on  a  charge  of  pear  before  the 
maintaining  and  publishing  a  variety  of  gt?Pau?s.°n 
erroneous  doctrines.     Wiclif  was  now 
placed  in  circumstances  of  imminent  peril ;  and  it  was 
extremely  fortunate,  both  for  him,  and  for  his  cause, 
that  he  enjoyed,  at  that  time,  the  coun-  He  is  prot8Ctea 
tenance  and  patronage  of  the  Duke  of  by     John"   01 
Lancaster.  It  would  be  vain,  at  this  day,  Gaunt< 

*  Fox,  p.  483.    Ed.  1684. 


156  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

to  search  for  the  origin  of  his  connexion  with  that 
ambitious  Prince.  The  existence  of  such  connexion^ 
however,  is  very  far  from  wonderful.  Nothing  can 
be  more  certain  than  the  fact,  that  the  Duke  was  de- 
cidedly adverse  to  the  overbearing  pretensions  of  the 
Papacy.  It  might,  therefore,  be  reasonably  expected, 
that  his  notice  would  be  attracted  by  the  abilities  of 
a  renowned  Divine,  almost  incessantly  employed  in 
opposition  to  the  same  power.  That  Wiclif  was 
not  unknown  at  court  so  early  as  1366,  is  obvious, 
from  the  circumstance  that,  in  his  Vindication  of  the 
Resistance  to  the  Papal  Census,  he  writes  himself 
Chaplain  to  the  King.*  The  Vindication  itself  would, 
very  naturally,  recommend  him  further  to  the  good 
opinion  of  the  Duke.f  And  it  is,  moreover,  tolerably 
certain,  that  his  notions  respecting  the  incongruity 
between  secular  office,  and  the  clerical  character, 
were  in  notorious  accordance  with  those  of  John  of 
Gaunt.  And,  lastly,  his  residence  at  Bruges  might 
have  brought  him  into  still  more  immediate  inter- 
course with  the  duke,  who  was  there  at  the  same 
time,  as  ambassador  on  the  part  of  England,  to  con- 
duct certain  negotiations,  then  pending  with  France, 
under  the  mediation  of  the  Pope.  All  these  circum- 
stances, taken  together,  may  be  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  appearance  of  this  illustrious  personage,  as 
the  friend  and  protector  of  Wiclif,  in  the  hour  of 
his  danger.  It  is,  however,  by  no  means  impossible, 
that  he  may  have  been  influenced,  not  solely  by  his 
hatred  of  ecclesiastical  power,  but  partly  by  his  per- 

*  Peculiaris  Regis  Clericus?. 

t  It  is  stated  by  Mr.  Lewis,  that  Wiclif  "addressed  some  of  his  works 
which  he  published,"  to  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  in  1368.  Mr.  Vaughan, 
however,  has  shown  that  this  must  be  a  mistake ;  arising,  probably,1from 
a  notice  to  that  effect  prefixed  to  a  volume  of  Wiclif 's  MSS.  in  T.  C. 
Dublin.  On  examination  of  the  pieces  in  that  volume,  it  was  found  that 
only  one  of  them  could  be  safely  assigned  to  the  year  1368,  and  that  the 
rest  'contain  allusions  which  clearly  point  to  a  subsequent  period. 
Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  304,  305.  The  contents  of  the  MS.  volume  in  ques- 
tion, are  the  tracts  from  No.  1.  to  No.  19.  in  the  second  section  of  Mr. 
Vaughan's  Catalogue  of  Wiclif 's  writings.  Vaugh.  vol.  ii.  p.  385. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  157 

sonal  aversion  lo  Courtney,  Bishop  of  London,  who 
was  a  Churchman  of  notorious  arrogance,  and  had 
shown  himself  a  determined  adversary  of  the  duke 
in  the  parliamentary  proceedings  of  the  last  year. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  his  appear-  Wiciif>g  ap. 
ance,  Wiclif  was  attended  to  St.  Paul's  pearance  at  St. 
by  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  and  by  Lord  Paul's> 
Henry  Percy,  the  Earl  Marshal.  The  scene  which 
ensued  was  exceedingly  tumultuous.  An  The  tumultuous 
immense  concourse  was  collected  in  the  scene  which  foi- 
church  to  witness  the  proceedings ;  and  lowed- 
it  was  not  without  the  greatest  difficulty,  that  a  pas- 
sage could  be  made  through  the  crowd,  for  Wiclif 
and  his  distinguished  companions  to  approach  the 
spot  where  the  prelates  were  assembled.  The  Bishop 
of  London  on  observing  the  impatience  with  which 
the  Earl  Marshal  was  forcing  his  way,  and  not,  per- 
haps, highly  gratified  by  seeing  the  delinquent  so 
powerfully  attended,  told  the  earl,  peremptorily,  that 
"  if  he  had  known  what  maistries  he  would  have  kept 
in  the  church,  he  would  have  stopped  him  out  from 
coming  there."  This  unceremonious  address  was 
instantly  resented  by  "  the  fiery  Duke,"  who  (possi- 
bly conscious  that  nothing  more  had  been  done  than 
was  necessary  to  make  their  way  through  the  press) 
replied  to  the  bishop,  that  "  he  would  keep  such  mais- 
try  there,  though  he  said  nay."  The  parties,  at  last, 
struggled  through,  to  our  lady's  chapel,  behind  the 
high  altar,  where  the  archbishop  (Sudbury,)  the 
Bishop  of  London,  and  other  prelates,  were  assem- 
bled, together  with  several  noblemen  who  had  resorted 
thither  to  witness  the  proceedings.  When  Wiclif 
came  into  the  presence  of  his  judges,  and  stood  be- 
fore them  to  make  answer  as  to  the  charges  which 
mi^ht  be  produced  against  him,  the  Earl  Marshal 
desired  him  to  be  seated ;  an  indulgence  which  the 
fatigues  of  the  day  would  render  reasonable,  and 
even  necessary,  "  as  he  had  many  things  to  answer 
for,  and  therefore  would  have  need  of  a  soft  seat." 
14 


158  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

"  This  interference,"  says  old  Fox,  "  eftsoons  cast  the 
Bishop  of  London  into  a  furnish  chafe."  He  declared 
that  Wiclif  "  should  not  sit  there.  It  was  not  ac- 
cording to  law  or  reason,  that  he,  which  was  cited  to 
appear  before  his  ordinary,  should  sit  down  during 
the  time  of  his  answer,  but  should  stand."  Upon 
these  words  much  angry  and  indecent  altercation 
ensued  j  in  the  course  01  which  the  duke  began  to 
assail  the  bishop  with  violent  menaces,  and  told  him 
that  "  he  would  bring  down  the  pride  not  only  of  him, 
but  of  all  the  prelacy  of  England  :"  and  added,  "  thou 
bearest  thyself  so  brag  upon  thy  parents,  which  shall 
not  be  able  to  help  thee :  they  stall  have  enough  to 
do  to  help  themselves."  The  parents  of  the  bishop 
were  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Devonshire :  and  yet 
it  would  seem,  he  was  able  to  keep  the  noble  blood 
in  his  veins  from  hotly  rebelling  at  this  imperious 
threat ;  for  his  reply  was  singularly  moderate  and 
wise  :  he  declared  that,  in  truth,  "  his  confidence  was 
not  in  his  parents,  nor  in  any  man  else,  but  only  in 
God — in  whom  he  trusted."  The  soft  answer  failed, 
in  this  case,  to  turn  away  wrath.  The  passion  of  the 
duke  overcame  both  his  prudence  and  his  sense  of 
propriety,  (a  circumstance  not  very  unusual  even  in 
those  days  of  chivalrous  courtesy !)  and  he  vented 
his  indignation  by  saying,  in  a  low  voice,  to  his 
next  neighbour,  that  "  he  would  rather  pluck  the 
bishop  by  the  hair  of  his  head  out  of  the  church, 
than  he  would  take  this  at  his  hand."  The  words 
were  not  so  gently  uttered,  but  they  reached  the  ears 
of  some  of  the  Londoners  near  him.  The  duke  was 
at  that  time  far  from  popular  with  the  citizens.  He 
was  not  free  from  suspicion  of  some  design  upon 
their  liberties.  They  had,  moreover,  been  thrown 
into  a  state  of  some  excitement  by  the  display  of 
angry  feelings  which  they  had  witnessed.  Hence, 
the  vindictive  language  of  the  duke  set  them  instant- 
ly in  a  flame ;  and  they  cried  out  vehemently,  that 
they  would  lose  their  lives  rather  than  see  their  bishop 


LIFE    OF    WICL1F.  159 

so  contemptuously  and  brutally  treated.  On  this, 
the  uproar  became  general :  the  assembly  was  broken 
up  in  furious  disorder ;  and  the  process  against  Wic- 
lif was,  for  a  time,  suspended.*  The  tumult  of  the 
day,  however,  did  not  end  here :  all  London  was 
speedily  in  confusion.  A  band  of  rioters  proceeded, 
the  next  day,  to  the  Savoy,  the  Duke  of  Lancaster's 
palace,  one  of  the  most  princely  structures  in  the 
kingdom,  reversed  his  arms  as  those  of  a  traitor,  and 
massacred  a  clergyman,  whom  they  mistook  for  the 
Earl  Marshal.  The  mob  was  at  last  dispersed  by 
the  exertions  of  the  Bishop  of  London ;  the  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  were  removed  from  their  offices ;  and 
their  places  are  said  to  have  been  filled  by  the  duke 
with  dependents  of  his  own."f 

*  Mr.  Milner,  in  his  Church  History,  vol.  iv.  p.  115,  says,  "It  would 
have  given  real  pleasure  to  the  lover  of  Christian  reformation,  if  he  could 
have  discovered  any  proof  that  Wiclif  protested  against  the  disorderly 
and  insolent  behaviour  of  his  patrons :"  and,  "  that  the  deportment  of 
the  archbishop  and  bishop  seems  to  have  been  more  unexceptionable  than 
that  of  Wiclif  and  his  friends."  Now  does  not  this  language  seem  to 
intimate  that  the  writer  must  have  been  on  the  watch  for  an  opportunity 
of  disparaging  the  Reformer  ?  As  for  the  conduct  of  WicliPs  patrons, 
we  have  no  objection  to  deliver  it  over  to  tiie  displeasure  of  Dr.  Milner. 
Little  more,  perhaps,  can  be  said  for  it,  (if  correctly  reported)  than,  that 
it  was  very  nearly  what  might  be  reasonably  anticipated  from  the 
haughty  and  semi-barbarous  aristocrats  of  that  age.  The  declaration  of 
Bishop  Courtney,  that  he  would  gladly  have  excluded  the  Earl  Marshal 
from  the  Church,  might  be  expected,  in  those  times,  to  chafe  the  temper 
of  a  Percy,  and  highly  to  exasperate  a  Prince  of  the  blood.  But  as  for 
Wielif  himself,  charity  would,  surely,  presume  that,  if  he  did  not  inter- 
fere, it  was  because  the  tumult  and  violence  of  the  scene  were  such  as 
to  make  all  interference  hopeless  and  nugatory.  Nay,  any  attempt  to 
interfere,  on  his  part,  might  only  have  aggravated  the  irritation  of  hia 
high-born  friends.  Nothing  can  well  be  more  unfair  than  to  raise  up 
unfavourable  surmises  on  the  strength  of  a  negative  circumstance  like 
this. 

t  Mr.  Lewis  represents  the  appearance  of  Wiclif  at  St.  Paul's  as  oc- 
curring in  1378.  Mr.  Vaughan,  however,  has  shown,  very  clearly,  that 
it  must  have  been  in  1377.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Lord  H.  Percy  was 
Earl  Marshal  in  1377,  and  that  he  resigned  that  office  the  following  year, 
and  succeeded  to  the  earldom  of  Northumberland.  Besides,  the  days  of 
the  week  and  month,  mentioned  in  the  accounts  of  this  transaction,  agree 
to  1377,  and  not  to  1378.  Mr.  Lewis,  probably,  was  misled  by  the  fact, 
thai  the  bulls  issued  by  the  Pope  against  Wiclif,  were  dated  June,  1377 ; 
since  he  describes  the  meeting  at  St.  Paul's  as  held  in  obedience  to  those 
mandates.  See  Lewis,  p.  54 — 58.  Vaushan,  vol.  i.  p.  354 — 357.  Fox, 
p.  387,  388.  Ed.  1684.  In  addition  to  the  above  considerations,  it  may 


160  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

June,  1377.  On  the  21  st  of  June,  1377,  Edward 
D6^  of  Ed-  in.  breathed  his  last,  and  the  first  Par- 
accession'  *of  liament  of  his  grandson,  Richard  II. 
Richard  ii.  assembled  in  October  following.  It 
appears  from  the  rolls,  that  they  continued,  per- 
Funher  com-  tinaciously,  to  clamour  against  the 
plaints  of  the  shameless  spoliation  practised  by  the 
against116111  the  agents  of  the  Pope.  They  complained 
Pope.  that  English  benifices  to  the  annual 

amount  of  6,000/.  were  held  by  Frenchmen,  and  they 
prayed  that  the  collecting  of  first-fruits  and  the  pro- 
curing of  Papal  provisions  within  this  kingdom 
mteht  be  punished  by  out-lawry ;  that  all  aliens,  as 
well  religious  as  others,  should  be  compelled  to  avoid 
the  realm ;  and  that,  during  the  war,  all  their  lands 
and  goods  should  be  appropriated  in  aid  of  its  ex- 
penses.* The  war  here  mentioned  was  among  the 
blessings  entailed  upon  his  people  by  Edward's  pas- 
sion tor  military  renown.  The  drain  of  national 
treasure  which  it  occasioned,  was  ruinous  beyond  all 
precedent;  and,  subsequently,  exposed  the  Crown  to 
persevering  and  indignant  remonstrance  from  the 
Question  whe-  Commons.  Even  at  this  time  the  pres- 
ther  the  trea-  sure  was  so  severely  felt  as  to  raise  the 
sure  of  the  king-  question,  in  Parliament,  "whether  the 

dom  might  not  i  •       j  /•  -r«      i  • 

be  detained,  ai-  kingdom  of  England,  on  an  imminent 
though  required  necessity  of  its  own  defence,  might  law- 
ope-  fully  detain  the  treasure  of  the  kingdom, 
that  it  be  not  carried  out  of  the  land ;  although  the 
Lord  Pope  required  it,  on  pain  of  censures,  and  by 
virtue  of  the  obedience  due  to  him."f  On  what  pre- 
cise occasion  this  momentous  point  was  mooted,  is 
not  certainly  known.  It  has  been  surmised  that  the 
Pope,  encouraged  by  the  prospect  of  weakness  and 
dissension,  incident  to  the  accession  of  a  minor,  had 

be  remarked  that,  on  this  occasion,  it  appears  that  Wiclif  was  cited  to 
appear  before  his  Ordinary,  not  before  the  Papal  delegates;  conse- 
quently, not  in  obedience  to  the  Papal  bulls. 

•  Cotton's  Abridgement,  p.  160.  162.  Lewis,  p.  55. 

t  Lewis,  p.  54,  55.    Cott.  Abridg.  p.  154. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  161 

revived  the  exaction  of  Peter-pence,  the  payment  of 
which  had  been  peremptorily  forbidden  by  Edward 
III.  The  terms  in  which  the  question  was  proposed 
were,  however,  quite  large  enough  virtually  to  deter- 
mine, if  answered  in  the  affirmative,  that  the  whole 
load  of  Papal  exactions  might  be  rightfully  shaken 
off,  in  utter  defiance  of  Pontifical  fulmi-  The  question  of 
nation.  The  matter  was  referred  to  the  payments  to  the 
intrepid  casuistry  of  Wiclif.  In  his  an-  £°$jclirf*ferred 
swer,  he  tosses  to  the  winds  all  merely 
human  authorities,  and  appeals  at  once  Hisanswer- 
to  the  divine  law.  In  the  first  place,  he,  in  substance, 
affirms  that,  by  the  ordinance  of  God,  the  principle  of 
self-preservation,  which  belongs  to  individual  crea- 
tures, is  likewise  clearly  extended  to  communities  : 
.and  that,  consequently,  our  kingdom  may  lawfully 
reserve  its  treasure  for  its  own  defence,  whenever  its 
-exigences  may  be  such  as  to  render  that  measure 
necessary.  The  same  conclusion,  he,  secondly,  asserts 
may  be  drawn  from  the  law  of  the  Gospel.  The 
Pope,  he  says,  "  cannot  challenge  the  treasure  of  this 
kingdom  but  under  the  title  of  alms;  and  conse- 
quently, under  the  title  of  works  of  mercy,  according 
to  the  rules  of  charity ;"  and  by  these  very  rules,  "  it 
were  no  work  of  charity  but  mere  madness,"  to  waste 
-our  resources  upon  foreigners,  already  wallowing  in 
opulence,  while  the  realm  itself  is  sinking  under  do- 
mestic taxation,  and  in  danger  of  falling  into  ruin. 
These  considerations  alone  might  be  amply  sufficient 
to  set  the  question  at  rest :  but  Wiclif  seizes  the  op- 
portunity thus  afforded  him  of  protesting,  as  it  were 
before  the  king  and  his  Parliament,  against  the  world- 
liness  and  avarice  of  him  who  called  himself  the  vicar 
.of  Christ,  and  yet  was  not  ashamed  to  load  himself 
with  the  spoil  of  the  mighty,  and  to  suck  the  very 
marrow  of  kings.  It  may,  therefore,  be  important  to 
jurnish  the  reader  with  the  very  words  of  his  un- 
daunted testimony.  The  affirmative  of  this  question, 
jie  says,  "  appeareth  also  by  this,  that  Christ,  the 
14* 


162  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

head  of  the  Church,  whom  all  Christians  ought  to 
follow,  lived  by  the  alms  of  devout  women.  Luke 
vii.  8.  He  hungered  and  thirsted,  he  was  a  stranger, 
and  many  other  miseries  he  sustained,  not  only  in 
his  members,  but  also  in  his  own  body,  as  the  Apos- 
tle witnesseth.  2  Cor.  viii.  He  was  made  poor  for 
your  sakes,  that  through  his  poverty  you  might  be  rich  : 
whereby,  in  the  first  endowing  of  the  Church,  what- 
soever he  were  of  the  clergy  that  had  any  temporal 
possessions,  he  had  the  same  as  a  perpetual  alms,  as 
both  writings  and  chronicles  do  witness.  Whereupon 
St.  Bernard,  declaring  in  his  second  book  to  Eugenius, 
that  he  could  not  challenge  any  secular  dominion  by 
right  of  succession,  as  being  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter, 
writeth  thus  : — 'If  St.  John  should  speak  to  the  Pope 
himself,  (as  Bernard  doth  to  Eugenius,)  were  it  to  be 
thought  that  he  would  take  it  patiently  ?  But  let  it 
be  so  that  you  challenge  it  unto  you  by  some  other 
ways  or  means  :  but,  truly,  by  any  right  or  title  apos- 
tolical you  cannot  so  do.  For  how  could  he  give  you 
that,  which  he  had  not  himself?  That  which  he 
had  he  gave  you ;  that  is  to  say,  care  over  the  Church : 
but,  did  he  give  you  any  lordship  or  rule?  Hark 
what  he  saith, — Not  bearing  rule,  as  lords  over  the 
clergy,  but  behaving  yourselves  as  examples  to  the  flock. 
And  because  thou  shalt  not  think  it  to  be  spoken  only 
in  humility,  mark  the  very  word  of  the  Lord  himself 
in  the  Gospel,  the  kings  of  the  people  do  ride  over  them  ; 
but  you  shall  not  do  so.  Here  lordship  and  dominion 
is  plainly  forbidden  to  the  apostles,  and  darest  thou, 
then,  usurp  the  same  ?  If  thou  wilt  be  a  lord,  thou 
shalt  lose  thine  apostleship ;  or,  if  thou  wilt  be  an 
apostle  thou  shalt  lose  thy  lordship ;  for,  truly,  thou 
shalt  depart  from  one  of  them.  If  thou  wilt  have 
both,  thou  shalt  lose  both ;  or  else,  think  thyself  to 
be  of  that  number,  of  whom  God  doth  so  greatly 
complain,  saying,  They  have  reigned,  but  not  through 
me  ;  they  are  become  princes,  but  I  have  not  known  it. 
Now  if  it  do  suffice  thee  to  rule  with  [without  ?J  the 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  163 

Lord,  thou  hast  thy  glory;  but  not  with  God.  But, 
if  we  will  keep  that  which  is  forbidden  to  us,  let  us 
hear  what  is  said, — He  that  is  greatest  among  you,  saith 
Christ,  shall  be  made  as  the  least,  and  he  which  is  high" 
est  shall  be  made  as  the  minister  ;  and  for  example,  he 
set  a  child  in  the  midst  of  them.  So  this,  then,  is  the 
true  form  and  institution  of  the  apostle's  trade :  lord- 
ship and  rule  is  forbidden,  ministration  and  service 
commanded.'  By  these  words  of  this  blessed  man, 
whom  the  whole  Church  doth  reverence  and  worship, 
it  doth  appear  that  the  Pope  hath  not  power  to  occupy 
the  Church  goods,  as  lord  thereof,  but  as  minister, 
and  servant,  and  proctor  for  the  poor.  And  would  to 
-God  that  the  same  proud  and  greedy  desire  of  rule 
and  lordship,  which  this  seat  doth  challenge  unto  it, 
were  not  a  preamble  to  prepare  a  way  unto  Anti- Christ. 
For  it  is  evident  by  the  Gospel,  that  Christ,  through 
his  poverty,  and  suffering,  and  humility,  got  unto  him 
die  children  of  his  kingdom.  And  moreover,  so  far 
as  I  remember,  the  same  blessed  man,  Bernard,  in 
his  third  book,  writeth  also  unto  Eugenius. — '  I  fear 
no  other  greater  poison  to  happen  unto  thee,  than 
greedy  desire  of  rule  and  dominion.'  "* 

And  thus,  for  the  second  time,  did  Wiclif  stand  up, 
as  the  public  advocate  of  his  sovereign  and  his  coun- 
try. The  reader  will  doubtless  have  remarked  the 
peculiar  language  in  which  he  here  speaks  of  the 
temporal  possessions  of  the  clergy.  He  represents 
them  as  a  perpetual  alms;  that  is,  not  as  contribution 
to  be  solicited  by  the  clergy,  day  by  day,  or  year  by 
year,  from  the  members  of  their  flock  ;  but,  rather 
as  an  endowment  originating  purely  in  voluntary 
benevolence,  and  piety,  to  be  equitably  and  faithfully 
.continued  to  them  upon  the  same  kindly  principle. 

*  This  answer  is  printed  in  Fox,  p.  510.  Ed.  1684 ;  but  so  printed,  (as 
Mr.  Vaughan  observes,)  that  it  is  not  easy  to  see  where  Wiclii  ends,  and 
where  the  martyroligist  begins  again.  Mr.  Vaughan  consulted  the  MS. 
Job.  Seldeni,  B.  10.  and  thus  ascertained  that  what  is  given  above  belongs 
,to  Wiclif.  Vaugh.  vol.  i.  p.  363-365, 


164  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

Whether  this  opinion  be  correct  or  not,  it  is  evident 
from  the  above  extract,  that  it  was  the  opinion  en- 
tertained by  the  Reformer;  and  that,  although  he 
speaks  of  clerical  emoluments  as  eleemosynary,  he 
must  be  understood  to  include  their  perpetuity  in  his 
notion  of  them.  According  to  his  views,  the  priest- 
hood may  be  considered  as  holding  their  property 
under  a  tenure,  liable  to  forfeiture  by  such  gross 
abandonment  of  their  duties,  as  must  defeat  the  pur- 
poses for  which  the  Christian  ministry  was  instituted. 
This  notice  of  his  peculiar  views  is  of  considerable 
importance  towards  a  just  estimate  of  his  theory, 
which  has  sometimes  been  represented  as  virtually 
reducing  the  secular  clergy  to  a  condition  precisely 
similar  to  that  of  the  Mendicant  Orders.  Against 
those  Orders,  and  the  very  principle  of  their  institu» 
tion,  his  whole  life  was,  almost,  one  incessant  war- 
fare ;  nothing,  therefore,  can  be  more  absurd  or  self- 
destructive  than  the  surmise,  that  he  was  anxious 
for  the  introduction  of  a  similar  principle  into  the 
ancient  and  established  system.  On  this  subject, 
however,  more  will  be  said  hereafter. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  165 


CHAPTER  V. 
1377—1379. 

Bulls  issued  by  the  Pope  against  Wiclif—  Coldly  received  at  Ox- 
ford—Wiclif  appears  at  Lambeth  before  the  Papal  delegates- 
Violence  of  the  Londoners — Message  from  the  Queen  Dowager — 
Wiclif 's  written  answers  to  the  charges — He  is  dismissed  with 
injunctions  to  abstain  from  spreading  his  doctrines — His  conduct 
on  this  occasion  considered — His  reply  to  the  mixtim  theologus — 
His  views  with  regard  to  Church  JProperty — In  what  sense  he 
considered  the  possessions  of  the  Church  as  Alms — His  dangerous 
sickness — He  is  visited  by  several  of  the  Medicants,  who  exhort 
him  to  repentance — His  answer. 

THE  pastoral  duties  of  Lutterworth,  and  the  labours 
of  the  theological  chair  probably  divided  the  time  of 
Wiclif,  in  the  interval,  between  the  month  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1377,  when  the  tempest  which  threatened  him 
was  so  suddenly  dispersed,  and  the  close  of  the  same 
year,  when  it  once  more  gathered  over  his  head.  It 
does  not  appear  that  any  record  has  been  preserved 
of  the  erroneous  articles  of  doctrine  for  which  he  was 
summoned  to  answer  before  the  convocation  at  St. 
Paul's.  Agents,  however,  were  busily  at  work,  by 
whose  fidelity  and  diligence  the  Apostolic  See  was, 
soon  after,  provided  with  materials  of  accusation; 
and,  accordingly,  in  the  course  of  some  months  from 
the  tumultuous  proceedings  related  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  no  less  than  four  bulls  issued  1377 
forth,  for  the  suppression  and  punish-  Bulls  issued  by 
ment  of  the  audacious  innovator.  In  ^i£^asaillst 
these  instruments,  three  of  which  are 
addressed  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
Bishop  of  London,  the  servant  of  the  servants  of  God, 
"  laments  that  England,  illustrious  for  its  wealth  and 
grandeur,  but  still  more  illustrious  for  the  purity  of 


166  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

its  faith,  should  now  be  overrun  with  the  tares  of  a 
pernicious  heresy;  and,  (to  complete  the  affliction 
and  the  shame,)  that  the  evil  had  been  felt  at  Rome, 
before  it  had  ever  been  resisted  in  Britain  !  His 
Holiness  had  been  credibly  informed  that  John  Wic- 
lif,  Rector  of  the  church  of  Lutterworth,  and  Pro- 
fessor of  the  Sacred  Page — (it  were  well  if  he  were 
not  a  master  of  errors  1) — had  broken  forth  into  a 
detestable  insanity,  and  had  dared  to  assert  and 
spread  abroad  opinions  utterly  subversive  of  the 
Church,  and  savouring  of  the  perversity  and  igno- 
rance of  Marsilius  of  Padua,  and  John  of  Ganduno,* 
both  of  accursed  memory."  For  this  cause  it  was 
strictly  enjoined  that  inquiry  should  secretly  be  made, 
respecting  this  matter ;  and,  if  it  should  turn  out 
to  be  as  represented,  then  the  said  John  Wiclif 
should  forthwith  be  apprehended  and  imprisoned, 
that  his  confession  should  be  taken,  kept  strictly  con- 
cealed, and  transmitted  under  seal  to  Rome.,  and  the 
offender  himself  detained,,  until  further  directions 
should  be  received.  It  was  als,o  enjoined  that  due 
vigilance  should  be  exercised  to  preserve  the  king, 
and  the  royal  family,  together  with  his  nobles  and 
counsellors  from  the  defilement  of  these  pestilent 
perversions.  And  as  "  the  arm  of  flesh"  would  be  a 
convenient  auxiliary  in  the  execution  of  these  spirit- 
ual measures,  a  paternal  epistle  is,  further,  addressed 
to  his  Majesty  Edward  III.  requesting  that  he  would 

*. Of  Marsilius,  or  Marsilius,  of  Padua,  and  John  of  Ganduno,  some 
account  may  be  found  in  Fox.  These  two  men  were  the  most  active 
champions  t>f  the  Franciscans,  when  they  were  suffering  from  the  severi- 
ties of  the  Pope  John  XXII.  When  the  conflict  broke  out  between  him 
and  the  Emperor  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  they  fled  to  the  Emperor,  and  were 
employed  by  him  as  advocates  against  the  Pontiff.  The  writings  of 
Marsrlius  laid  the  axe  directly  to  the  root  of  the  Papal  supremacy ;  and, 
what  is  at  least  equally  remarkable,  they  maintained  the  true  Protestant 
doctrine  of  free  Justification  by  Grace.  They  declared  that  merits  are 
no  efficient  causes  of  our  salvation,  but  only  a  condition  sine  qua  non  ; 
that  works  are  no  causes  of  justification,  but  that  justification  goeth  not 
without  them.  For  these,  and  similar  opinions,  he  and  John  de  Ganduno 
were  condemned  by  the  Pope,  in  1330.  See  Fox,  p.  443,  444.  EcL 
1684.  Mosheim,  vol.  ii.  p,  348. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  167 

deign  to  extend  his  gracious  support  to  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  prelates,,  as  he  valued  his  good  name  on 
earth,  his  bliss  in  heaven,  and  the  benediction  of 
the  Holy  See.  A  mandate  similar  to  the  three  for- 
mer, was  also  addressed  to  the  University  of  Oxford, 
strictly  commanding  them,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  all 
the  privileges  conferred  on  them  by  the  Holy  See, 
to  suppress  the  doctrines  and  conclusions  imputed  to 
Wiclif,  to  seize  the  person  of  Wiclif  him  sen,  and  to 
deliver  it  to  the  custody  of  the  archbishop  or  his 
colleague.  With  these  documents  was  inclosed  a 
schedule  containing  nineteen  erroneous  conclusions, 
said  to  be  maintained  and  taught  by  the  heresiarch. 
The  whole  of  the  above  formidable  apparatus  of 
missives,  bears  date  the  llth  of  June,  1377;  so  that 
there  must  have  been  abundant  time  for  conveying 
to  Rome,  previous  to  the  concoction  of  these  instru- 
ments, full  intelligence  of  the  decisive  answer  given 
by  Wiclif  to  the  question  proposed  to  him  by  Parlia- 
ment, in  the  early  part  of  the  year,  relative  to  the 
lawfulness  of  withholding  payments  from  the  Pope. 
This  last  overt  act  of  rebellion  must  have  amply 
filled  up  the  measure  of  his  iniquities,  and  heated  one 
seven  times  hotter  than  before,  the  furnace  of  the  Pon- 
tifical wrath.  In  the  Primate  of  England  and  the 
Bishop  of  London,  the  Holy  See  found  most  willing 
and  faithful  ministers,  who  declared  that  neither  en- 
treaties, nor  menaces,  nor  gifts,  nor  the  imminent 
terrors  of  death  itself,  should  divert  them  from  their 
duty  in  this  righteous  cause.*  At  Oxford,  however, 
the  reception  of  the  Papal  rescript  was  lamentably 
different  from  what  might  have  been  expected  from 
true  sons  and  champions  of  the  Church.  It  was  even 
debated  whether  the  Bull  should  be  honourably  re- 

*  "Episcopi.  .  .  .  animati  plurimum,  profitebantursenulliusprecibus, 
nullius  minis  vcl  muneribus  esse  flectendos,  quin,  in  ista  causa  recta, 
justitiam  sequerentur,  etiam  si  periculum  capitis  immineret."  Wals, 
p.  205. 


163  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

ceived,  or  disdainfully  rejected.*  In  the  first  place, 
it  was  a  manifest  invasion  of  their  privileges ;  and 
secondly,  it  demanded  the  sacrifice  of  a  man  who 
had  long  been  the  champion  of  their  rights,  and  the 
glory  of  the  University.  The  mandate,  however,  was 

at  last  received,  though  with  manifest 
ders  cokHy  re-  coldness  and  reluctance  ;  and  its  recep- 
ceived  at  Ox-  tion  was  followed  by  no  symptoms  of 

readiness  to  comply  with  its  requisi- 
tions. To  quicken  their  movements,  a  peremptory 
letter  was  addressed  by  Sudbury,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, to  the  Chancellor  of  Oxford,  insisting  upon 
a  speedy  and  faithful  obedience  to  the  commands  of 
the  Pope;  and  the  result  of  all  these  preliminary 

proceedings  was,  that  early  in  the  next 
Wiclif3  appears  year'  "W^f  appeared  before  the  synod 
at  Lambeth  be-  of  Papal  commissioners,  assembled  in, 
DeTe^a^s Pai>al  ^e  archbishop's  chapel,  at  Lambeth 

palace.  But  here  again,  disappointment 
was  in  store  for  the  inquisitors.  At  the  time  of  the 
meeting,  the  place  was  besieged  by  multitudes  of  thes 
Londoners,  who  are  represented  by  the  chronicles  of 
the  time,  as  deeply  infected  by  the  heresy  of  Wiclifr. 
The  more  violent  and  outrageous  among  them  broke 
violence  of  the  into  the  chapelf  where  the  delegates- 
Londoners,  were  convened,  and  showed  by  their 
words  and  demeanour,  that  they  were  prepared  ta 
resent  very  effectually  the  infliction  of  injury  on  the 
person  of  the  reformer.  The  consternation  of  the 
delegates  was  extreme ;  and  it  was  not  at  all  miti* 

*  To  the  utter  amazement  and  dismay  of  Walsingham!  "Diu  i» 
pendulo  haerebant  utrum  papalem  bullam  deberent  cum  honore  recipere, 
vel  omnino  cum  dedecore  refutare.  Oxoniense  Studium  generate !  quam 
gravi  lapsu  a  sapientise  et  scientise  culmine  decidisti ;  quod  quondam 
fnextricabilia  atque  dubia  toti  mundo  declarare  consu^sti ;  jam,  ignoran- 
tice  nubilo  obfuscatum,  dub i tare  non  vereris  quae  quemlibete  laicis  Chris- 
tianis  dubitare  non  licet.  Pudet  recordationis  tantae  imprudentiaB :  et, 
ideo,  suj>ersedeo  in  hujusmodo  materia  immorari,  ne  materna  videar 
\ibera  decer])ere  manibus,  quee  dare  lac  potum  scientias  consuevere !" 
Wals.  p.  200.  Ed.  1574.  ad.  An.  1377. 

t  Wals.  p.  206.    Ed.  1574. 


LIFE   OF  WICXIF.  169" 

gated  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  Sir  Lewis  Clif- 
ford in  the  court,  with  a  message  from  Mcg8RSe  from 
the  Queen  Mother,  the  widow  of  the  the  uueen  Dow- 
Black  Prince,  positively  forbidding  them  a=er- 
to  proceed  to  any  definite  sentence  against  Wiclif, 
The  effect  of  this  mandate  is  indignantly  described 
by  Walsingham  ".  "  As  at  the  wind  of  a  shaken  reed, 
their  speech  became  softer  than  oil;  to  the  public 
loss  of  their  own  dignity,  and  the  damage  of  the 
whole  Church.  They  who  had  sworn  that  they  would 
yield  no  obedience  even  to  the  princes  and  nobles  of 
the  realm,  until  they  had  chastised  the  excesses  of 
the  heresiarch,  conformably  to  the  Papal  mandate, 
were  smitten  with  such  terror  by  the  face  of  an  ob- 
scure retainer  of  the  princess,  that  you  would  have 
thought  their  horns  were  gone,*  and  that  they  had 
become  as  a  man  that  heareth  not,  and  in  whose 
mouth  are  no  reproofs."  And  thus  was  the  prey 
once  more  rent  from  the  jaws  of  the  lion.  The 
whole  scene  furnishes  a  curious  indication  of  the 
turbulent  spirit  of  those  times  ;  and  the  irruption  of 
the  mob,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  imperious  message 
of  the  royal  dowager  on  the  other,  demonstrate  that 
the  influence  of  Wiclif  had  made  formidable  incur- 
sions into  almost  every  region  of  society,  from  the 
Highest  to  the  lowest. 

At  this  meeting,  Wiclif  delivered  to  wiciifs  written 
the  commissioners  a  paper,  containing  answer  to  the 
an  answer  to  the  charges  of  heresy,  and  charses- 
an  explanation  of  the  opinions  contained  in  his 
conclusions.!  He  was,  nevertheless,  He  is  dismissed, 
strictly  admonished  by  the  delegates  to  with  injunctions 
abstain  from  repeating  such  proposi-  to  abstain  fr°™ 

•  i          .      *%  i_      i  •      r  •     spreading     nis 

tions,  either  in  the  schools,  or  in  his  doctrines" 
sermons,  in  order  that  the  laity  might 

*  Such  are  the  words  of  the  Chronicler:  " — ut  cornibus  eos  carere 
putares ;  factos  velut  homo  non  audiena,  et  non  habens  in  ore  euo  redar- 
gntiones."  Wals.  Hist.  Angl.  p.  205,  206.  Ed.  1574. 

t  "  Conclusions  suae,  cum  responsione  sua."    Selden,  MSS.  Archi. 
B.  10.    It  is  also  printed  in  Walsingham,  p.  20&— 209. 
15 


170  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

not  be  made  to  stumble  by  his  perversions :  an  in- 
juction,  which,  as  the  popish  chronicler  complains, 
lie  treated  with  contempt,  and  persisted  in  scattering 
conclusions  still  more  pernicious.*  Besides  this  pa- 
per, be  presented  to  the  Parliament,  which  assembled 
early  in  April,  1378,  another  document  of  a  similar 
import,  though  with  some  variations,  and  in  several 
parts,  much  more  diffuse  and  explicit  than  the  former. 
His  reason  for  submitting  this  declaration  to  Parlia- 
ment, if  we  may  judge  from  the  somewhat  obscure 
titlef  prefixed  to  it,  is,  that  he  had  reason  to  believe 
that  his  conclusions  had  been  imperfectly,  or  incor- 
rectly reported  at  Rome.  And  here  it  is  necessary 
for  the  biographer  of  Wiclif  to  pause  awhile  ;  because 
it  is  here  that  his  conduct  has  been  not  only  assailed 
by  Popish  adversaries,  but  languidly  defended,  if  not 
openly  condemned,  by  certain  Protestant  friends. 
His  conduct  on  ^et  us  lnen>  first  listen  to  the  representa- 
this  occasion  tions  of  his  enemies.  Among  these,  we 
considered.  may,  naturally,  expect  to  find  the  Popish 
annalists ;  of  whom  none  was  more  bitter  and  inve- 
terate than  "Walsingham.  By  this  writer  it  is  affirm- 
ed, that  "  by  these  artful  explanatory  statements  he 
deluded  his  judges,  and  threw  some  plausible  mean- 
ing into  his  nefarious  propositions  ;J  all  of  which,  if 
simply  taken,  according  to  the  mode  in  which  he 
produced  them  in  the  schools,  and  in  his  public 
preaching,  unquestionably  savour  of  heretical  pravity" 
To  this  the  answer  is  very  simple  and  obvious  :  His 

•  Wals.  p.  206. 

t  "  Protestatio  Reverendi  Doctoris,  una  cum  ejus  Conclusionibus, 
quee  ab  eo,  in  subscripts,  forma,  sunt  positse  ;  quae,  in  consimilibus  ma- 
teriis,  et  dissimilibus  Ibrmis,  sunt  et  fuerunt  reportatse,  et  ad  Curiam 
Romanam  transmissae  ;  et  sic,  in  muftis,  minus  bene  impositcB."  This 
paper  is  printed  in  Lewis,  p.  382,  No.  40.,  from  MSS.  Selden.  Arch. 
B.  10. 

t  I  presume,  but  am  not  quite  certain,  that  this  must  be  the  meaning 
of  his  words.  The  reader  shall  judge.  After  reciting  his  first  explanatory 
paper,  (the  second  he  does  not  give,)  the  Chronicler  adds,  "  Hoc  eodem 
modo,  idem  versipellis  ille  Wicklefides,  ponendo  intelleetum  in  suis 
nefandis  propositionibiis,  favore  et  diligentia  Londinensium,  delusit 
suoa  exarmnatores,  Episcopos  derisit,  et  evaeit."  Wals.  p.  209. 


LIFE    OF     WICLIF.  171 

opinions,  even  as  represented  by  himself  in  his  ex- 
planatory papers,  will  unquestionably,  be  found,  by 
all  good  Catholics,  to  savour  very  sufficiently  of  here- 
tical pravity.  And,  if  they  savour  of  it  somewhat 
less  rankly  than  the  conclusions  imputed  to  him  by 
the  holy  see,  it  is  because  he  could  not,  in  justice,  be 
expected  to  stand  or  fall  by  a  statement  of  his  own 
opinions,  coming  from  the  mouth  of  an  adversary, 
or  an  accuser.  But  this  part  of  his  case  will  be  more 
fully  considered  below. 

Still  more  dishonourable  to  the  memory  of  Wiclif, 
is  the  representation  of  a  modern  enemy  to  Pro- 
testant reformation.  "  To  prepare  for  the  day  of 
trial,"  says  Dr.  Lingard,  "he  first  published  a  defence 
of  part  of  his  doctrine,  in  language  the  most  bold 
and  inflammatory.  Soon  afterwards  he  composed  a 
second  apology,  in  which,  though  he  assumed  a  mo- 
derate tone,  he  avowed  his  willingness  to  shed  his 
blood  in  defence  of  his  assertions.  There  is,  how- 
ever, reason  to  believe  that  the  new  apostle  was  in 
no  haste  to  grasp  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  At  his 
trial  he  .exhibited  to  the  prelates  the  same  paper, 
but  with  numerous  corrections  and  improvements." 
And  in  a  note,  the  same  historian  says,  "  these  three 

Eapers  may  be  found  in  Walsingham,"  (whereas,  in 
ict,  only  one  of  them  is  to  be  found  there ;  namely, 
the  paper  which  he  presented  on  his  trial,)  and  then 
adds  with  matchless  composure,  "  there  is  no  date  to 
any  of  them ;  but  their  contents  seem  to  point  out  the 
order  in  which  they  succeeded  each  other."* 

It  is  impossible  to  mistake  the  object  of  this  state- 
ment. Its  purpose,  evidently,  is  to  represent  Wiclif 
as  maintaining  the  port  of  heroism,  when  .danger  was 
at  a  convenient  distance,  and  as  lowering  his  tone 
precisely  according  to  the  urgency  of  its  approach ! 
^Now,  in  the  first  place,  on  a  moment's  consideration, 
it  must  surely  occur  to  every  reader,  that  to  publish 

*  Lingard's  England,  vol.  iv.  p.  256,  2§7, 


172  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

an  inflammatory  statement  of  heretical  opinions,  must, 
in  those  times,  have  been  rather  a  hazardous  mode  of 
preparing  for  trial,  before  a  tribunal  of  spiritual  in- 
quisitors, acting  under  the  immediate  commission  of 
the  Pope.  But,  in  the  second  place,  I  know  not  to 
what  inflammatory  paper  the  historian  alludes,  unless 
it  be  to  an  answer  published  by  Wiclif,  to  a  violent 
assault  upon  his  positions,  by  an  anonymous  writer, 
whom  he  calls  a  "  motley  theologue  ;"*  and  if  this  be 
so,  it  is  next  to  an  absolute  certainty,  that  this  attack, 
or  at  least  the  answer  to  it,  appeared  subsequently  to 
those  two  papers,  which  Dr.  Lingard  has  been  pleased 
to  describe  as  the  second  and  the  third,  and,  therefore, 
could  not  be  put  forth  by  way  of  preparation  for  his 
trial.  From  the  very  language  of  the  tract  itself,  it  is 
evident  that  the  delegates  must  then  have  been  wait- 
ing the  final  decision  from  Rome.  For,  in  speaking 
of  the  unlimited  power  of  binding  and  loosing,  claimed 
by  the  Pope,  he  there  says,  "  Whether  the  judges  or 
•delegates,  by  the  Pope's  permission,  proceed  to  con- 
demn my  conclusions,  or  the  Lord  Pope  himself,  the 
faithful  are  unanimously  to  make  opposition  to  that 
blasphemous  opinion."!  Combine  these  words  with 
the  language  of  the  Papal  bull,  which  enjoins  that 
the  examination  of  Wiclif,  together  with  the  whole 
proceedings  of  the  delegates  should  be  transmitted 
under  seal  to  Rome,  to  await  the  further  direction  of 
his  Holiness^  and  no  reasonable  doubt  can  remain, 
that  the  case  had  then  been  disposed  of  in  England,  so 
far  as  the  commissioners  had  authority  to  dispose  of  it; 
and  that  they  were  actually  expecting  further  instruc- 
tions from  the  Pope,  either  in  the  shape  of  a  final  sen- 
tence from  himself,  or  of  a  general  permission  to 
them,  to  deal  with  the  matter  as  they  should  think  fit. 
Again,  if  Dr.  Lingard's  arrangement  of  these  docu- 
ments is  to  be  accepted,  it  will  follow,  that  the  bolder 

*  Mixtus  theologus.  t  Lewis,  p.  79. 

f  Donee  a  nobis  super  hoc  aliud  receperitis  in  mandatis.    See  this  pa* 
sage  of  the  bull  in  Lewis,  p.  311. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  173 

and  more  explicit  of  the  two  remaining  papers  was 
composed  before  his  trial,  and  afterwards  softened 
down  into  the  comparatively  moderate  apology  which 
he  actually  exhibited  to  the  prelates.  All  the  evi- 
dence that  yet  remains  to  us,  is  directly  opposed  to 
any  such  inversion  of  their  order.  In  the  first  place, 
— the  title  prefixed  to  the  more  diffuse  of  these  Ex- 
planations, intimates  that  it  was  addressed  to  the 
Parliament  ;*  and,  if  so,  it  must  have  appeared  sub- 
sequently to  the  proceedings  at  Lambeth;  for  the 
Parliament  did  not  meet  till  after  those  proceedings 
had  been  concluded.  But,  further, — the  paper  itself 
contains  a  manifest  reference  to  certain  explanations 
and  reasonings  produced  by  him  in  some  previous 
^document ;  and  such  reasonings  are  actually  found  in 
the  Paper  presented  to  the  Delegates.  For  instance 
— in  Article  6  of  the  Paper,  which  stands  second  in 
Lewis,  Wiclif  speaks  of  the  power  of  temporal  au- 
thorities to  take  away  the  goods  of  a  delinquent  Church. 
This  authority  he  had  asserted  to  be  derivable  from 
,lhe  supreme  power  of  God,  which  might,  for  that,  as 
well  as  for  any  other  purpose,  be  communicated  to 
earthly  potentates.  But  he  adds — "  lest  this  conclu- 
sion should,  by  reason  of  its  remoteness,  appear  to  be 
impertinent,  /  have  shown  that  temporal  Lords  have 
power  to  take  away  the  alms  conferred  by  them  on 
the  Church,  whenever  the  Church  abuses  them :"  and 
to  show  this,  is  actually  the  object  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  Articles  of  the  former  Paper. f  The 
contents  of  these  Papers  do,  therefore,  "  seem  to 
point  out,  very  plainly,  the  order  in  which  they  were 
delivered:"  and  that  order  is,  beyond  all  reasonable 
question,  directly  at  variance  with  the  convenient 
.surmise  of  Dr.  Lingard.t 

*  Its  title  in  the  Selden  MS.  is  "  ad  Parliamentum  Regis."  See 
>Vaugh.  vol.  ii.  p.  384. 

t  See  Lewis,  p.  70,  compared  withj).  65;  66. 

j  The  representation  of  this  question  given  above,  agrees,  essentially, 
with  that  of  Mr.  Vaughan,  which,  on  the  best  consideration  I  could  bo* 
.etow  upon  it,  appears  to  me  to  be  just.  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  406,  note  18. 

15* 


174  LIFE    OF  WICLIF. 

The  slanderous  insinuation, — that  Wiclif,  on  this 
memorable  occasion,  began  by  bullying,  and  ended 
by  lameness  and  submission, — in  the  mouth  of  a 
Catholic  adversary,  will,  perhaps,  excite  but  little 
astonishment,  though  it  may  give  rise  to  certain 
other  emotions.  But  what  must  be  our  sorrow, 
should  we  find  similar  unworthy  suspicions  of  Wic- 
lif's  integrity  adopted,  and  maintained  by  a  Protestant 
historian  ?  And  yet  it  is  even  so.  "  He  delivered  to 
the  Court,"  says  Milner,  in  his  Church  History,  "  a 
protest  and  qualification  of  his  positions,  which  had 

been  deemed  erroneous  and  heretical* One  of 

his  conclusions  was  this  :  *  All  the  race  of  mankind, 
here  on  earth,  have  no  power  simply  to  ordain,  that 
St.  Peter  and  his  successor  should  politically  rule  over 
the  world  for  ever.'  His  explanation  before  the  As- 
sembly was  to  this  effect:  "This  conclusion  is  self- 
evident,  in  as  much  as  it  is  not  in  man's  power  to 
stop  the  coming  of  Christ  to  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead :'  an  explanation,"  Mr.  Milner  observes,  "  which 
renders  the  conclusion  equivocal,  if  not  altogether 
nugatory." 

Now,  one  would  naturally  conclude,  from  this 
statement,  that  the  document  in  question  contained 
not  another  syllable,  which  could  affect  the  perpetual 
and  uncontrollable  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  But,  if 
we  turn  to  the  eighteenth  article!  of  this  very  Paper, 
we  shall  find  a  position  insufferably  offensive  to 
Catholic  ears,  and  virtually  subversive  of  the  Papal 
claim  to  absolute  and  irresponsible  dominion.  It  is 
there  distinctly  asserted,  that  even  the  Pope  himself 
may,  on  some  accounts,  be  corrected  by  his  subjects; 
and,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Church,  may  be  impleaded 
fay  both  clergy  and  laity.  This  position  is  grounded 
by  him  on  the  consideration,  that  the  Pope  is  our 
peccable  brother,  and  liable  to  sin  as  well  as  we :  and 
ie  plainly  affirms,  that,  when  the  whole  college  of 

•  Vol.  iv,  p.  117,  &c.  t  Lewis,  p,  66. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  175 

cardinals  is  remiss  in  correcting  him  for  the  necessary 
welfare  of  the  Church,  the  rest  of  the  body,  which 
may  chance  to  be  chiefly  made  up  of  laity,  may,  me- 
dicinally, reprove  him  and  implead  him,  and  reduce 
him  to  better  life  :  a  doctrine,  which  it  would  be  dif- 
ficult in  theory,  and  quite  impossible  in  practice,  to 
reconcile  with  the  indefeasible  autocracy  of  the  Vicar 
of  Christ.  Yet  this  is  the  doctrine  exhibited  by  Wic- 
lif  to  the  Papal  delegates  at  Lambeth,  even  according 
to  the  representation  of  Walsingham ;  and  it  is  wound 
up  by  these  memorable  words :  "  Far  be  it  from  the 
Church  that  the  truth  should  be  condemned  because 
it  sounds  ill  in  the  ears  of  the  sinful  and  the  ignorant ; 
for  then  the  whole  faith  of  Scripture  must  be  liable 
to  condemnation."*  , 

Again  :  his  eleventh  article  maintains,  that  there 
"is  no  power  granted  by  Christ  to  his  disciples,  to 
excommunicate  a  subject  for  the  denial  of  temporali- 
ties to  the  clergy."f — "  This,"  says  Mr.  Milner,  "  is 
a  part  of  Wiclif  's  doctrine,  which  undoubtedly,  was 
levelled  at  the  right  of  the  clergy  to  possess  any  kind 
of  property ;  and  was  intended  to  be  applied  to  the 
purpose  of  setting  that  right  aside.  He  takes  care, 
however,  in  his  explanation,  to  avoid  the  direct  asser- 
tion of  his  real  sentiment,  by  saying  only — this  is 
declared,  in  that  doctrinal  principle,  taught  in  Scrip- 
ture, according  to  which  we  believe  that  God  is  to  be 
loved  above  all  things  ;  and  our  neighbour  and  ene- 
my to  be  loved  above  all  temporal  goods :  for  the 
law  of  God  cannot  be  contrary  to  itself." 

That  this  particular  conclusion  was  levelled  at  the 
possessions  of  the  clergy,  is  a  point  very  far  removed 
from  the  certainty  which  is  here  claimed  for  it  by  Mr. 
Milner.  From  the  tenor  of  various  other  positions 
in  the  Paper,  it  seems,  rather,  to  have  been  directed 
against  the  abuse  of  the  power  of  excommunication. 
The  ninth  Article  denounces  the  application  of  that 

*  Walsingh.  p.  208,  209.    Lewis  p.  66,  67. 
t  Walsingh.  p.  208.    Lewis,  p.  64. 


176  UFE  OF  WICLIF. 

power  to  the  purposes  of  personal  revenge  or  passion: 
and,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  it  may  here  be  con- 
demned as  a  means. of  extorting  the  payment  of  cleri- 
cal demands,  whether  those  demands  were  just  or 
questionable.  His  views,  it  must  be  confessed,  are 
but  obscurely  and  imperfectly  developed  in  this  Arti- 
.cle ;  but  from  this,  in  combination  with  several  other 
Articles,  it  will  appear  that,  in  his  estimation,  the 
power  in  question  ought  never  to  be  resorted  to, 
except  with  an  immediate  and  charitable  view  to  the 
Benefit  of  human  souls;  and  that,  consequently,  it 
could  not,  without  impiety,  be  employed  merely  as  an 
auxiliary  to  the  interests  of  the  priesthood;  and  that 
its  use,  for  such  purposes,  was  never  warrantable, 
unless  the  ca^se  were  one  which  might,  directly  and 
immediately,  involve  the  honour  of  religion  and  the 
cause  of  God.*  And  such  a  case  might  be  fairly 
.said  to  occur  if  the  substraction  of  clerical  dues  should 
be  such,  as  to  seriously  threaten  an  utter  cessation  or 
suspension  of  religious  ordinances. 

The  theory  of  Wiclif,  respecting  the  temporal  pos- 
sessions .of  the  clergy,  is  intimated  in  his  eighteenth 
Article  :-^"  When  the  Pope,  or  temporal  Lords,  shall 
have  endowed  the  Church  wi.th  temporalities,  it  is 
lawful  for  them  to  take  them  away,  by  way  of  medir 
cine,  to  prevent  sin,  notwithstanding  excommunication, 
because  they  are  .not  given  but  under  a  condition" 
This  position  is  precisely  conformable  to  the  doctrine 
he  had  maintained  in  his  answer  to  the  question  of 
the  Parliament,  wherein  he  affirms  the  ecclesiastical 
endowments  to  be  in  the  nature  of  a  perpetual  alms  ; 
Jiable  to  forfeiture,  on  a  gross  failure  of  the  condition 
upon  which  they  were  originally  granted.  Whatever 
may  be  the  merits  or  the  demerits,  of  this  doctrine, 
it  is  here,  at  least,  with  entire  consistency,  asserted  by 
the  Reformer.  But,  then,  says  Mr.  Milner,  the  fol* 
lowing  is  his  explanation  of  it  before  the  delegates, 

*  He  allowed  that  temporalities  might  be  exacted  by  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures, accessoi-it,  ad  vindicationem  Dei.  Wals.  p.  208.  Lewie,  p.  64. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  177 

•*'  The  truth  of  this  is  evident,  because  nothing  ought 
to  hinder  a  man  from  performing  the  principal  works 
of  charity.  Yet  God  forbid  that,  by  these  words,  occa- 
sion should  be  given  to  the  Lords  temporal  to  take 
away  the  goods  of  the  Church."  And  the  historian 
adds — "  I  need  make  no  remark  on  this  conclusion, 
and  its  explanation !"  Now,  it  is  submitted,  on  the 
contrary,  that  the  following  remarks  may  be  made, 
and  ought  to  be  made  upon  it : — first,  that  his  notions 
«n  the  subject  are  not  to  be  collected  solely  from  the 
brief  and  meager  language  of  this  particular  Article, 
but  from  the  tenor  of  the  whole  document;  which 
shows,  that  he  considered  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical 
property  with  constant  reference  to  its  effect  on  the 
spiritual  interests  of  men  ;  that  he,  accordingly,  held 
that  the  purposes  of  charity  might,  in  some  cases  of 
egregious  abuse,  be  more  transcendency  and  efFect- 
tually  accomplished  by  withdrawing,  or  suspending 
those  spiritual  alms,  than  by  continuing  to  supply 
them  ;  and  that,  consequently,  the  terror  of  excommu- 
nication itself  ou^ht  not  to  deter  the  temporal  autho- 
rities from  venturing  on  this  act  of  what  he  considered 
as  charitable  justice.  The  sixth  Article  of  the  same 
Paper,  however,  shows  that  he  never  contemplated, 
as  legitimate,  a  spoliation  of  the  Church,  by  the 
"  bare  authority"  and  capricious  will,  of  individuals ; 
but  a  deprivation,  by  the  authority  of  the  Church: 
and  by  the  Church,  be  it  always  remembered,  Wiclif 
understood,  not  merely  the  clerical  body,  but  the 
whole  Christian  community.  So  that  the  sum  of  his 
doctrine,  as  here  asserted,  amounts  to  this — that  the 
authority  of  the  temporal  magistrate  is  fully  compe- 
tent to  the  office  of  providing,  that  ecclesiastical 
endowments  should  be  applied  to  the  purposes  for 
which  they  were  originally  granted,  on  pain  of  for- 
feiture and  confiscation ;  a  doctrine  which  was  after- 
wards formidably  exemplified  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
but  which  it  must  have  demanded  no  ordinary  courage 
for  any  individual  to  breathe  in  the  days  of  Wiclif: 


i 


178  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

especially  in  the  presence  of  such  a  Court  as  was  then 
assembled  at  Lambeth. 

Another  complaint  of  Mr.  Milner  is,  that  in  some 
of  his  writings,  WicMf  called  the  Pope  antichrist, 
robber,  and  insolent  priest  of  Rome;  hut  that  no 
such  language  is  to  be  found  in  this  protestation.  It 
is,  indeed,  undeniable,  that  no  such  epithets  or  attri- 
butes are  bestowed  upon  the  Pontiff  in  this  paper; 
and  it  would  have  been  truly  surprising  if  it  had  been 
.otherwise.  The  conclusions  which  he  was  accused 
of  maintaining,  contain  not  a  syllable  to  that  effect ; 
and  I  know  not  that  the  spirit  of  martyrdom  itself  can 
require  of  a  man  wantonly  to  exasperate  his  judges, 
by  avowing  practices  or  opinions  which  he  is  not 
called  upon  to  vindicate  or  explain.  But,  further,  it 
is  extremely  important  to  remark,  that,  in  all  proba- 
bility, those  writings  of  Wiclif 's,  which  contain  the 
most  unsparing  denunciation  of  Papal  corruption  and 
arrogance,  were  published  subsequently  to  his  appear- 
ance at  Lambeth.  I  say,  in  all  probability  ;  because 
his  works  are  so  numerous,  and  so  dispersed,  that  it 
might  look  like  rashness  to  venture  on  a  more  confi- 
dent assertion.  Thus  much,  however,  is  next  to 
certain, — that  several  of  his  treatises,  which  have 
hitherto  been  ascribed  to  an  earlier  period,  could,  by 
no  possibility,  have  been  composed  till  after  that 
transaction  ;*  and  that  precisely  in  those  treatises  it 
is,  that  we  find  the  most  violent  language  of  reproba- 
tion levelled  at  the  Papacy,  In  that  case,  the  fair 
and  reasonable  inference  is,  not  that  the  terrors  of 
persecution  kept  his  opinions  in  concealment,  but 
rather,  that  his  detestation  of  the  Romish  system  grew 

*  This,  I  think,  is  shown  irresistibly  by  Mr.  Vaughan,  with  respect  to 
the  Triaiogus,— the  Sentence  of  Curse  expounded, — the  treatises  on  Pre- 
lates, arid  on  Clerks  possessioners, — How  Antichrist  and  his  Clerks  feren 
true  Priests  fro  preaching  the  Gospel, — How  Satan  and  his  Priests  casten 
by  three  cursed  heresies,  &c.  These  are  supposed,  by  Mr.  Lewis,  to  have 
appeared  previously  to  the  Lambeth  Synpd.  But  Mr.  Vaughan  has 
proved  this  to  be  impossible,  by  showing  that  every  one  of  them  contains 
some  allusion  to  events  which  happened  subsequently.  See  note  9,  to 
second  edition  of  Vaughan,  vol.  i.  p.  381. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  179 

stronger  as  he  advanced  in  life ;  and  that  his  indig- 
nation was  probably  aggravated,  in  his  latter  years, 
by  the  scandal  which  the  Papal  schism  inflicted  upon 
Christendom. 

After  all,  however,  it  would  ill  become  any  candid 
biographer  of  Wiclif,  to  claim  unqualified  commenda- 
tion for  the  document  which,  on  this  occasion,  he 
exhibited  to  his  judges.  It  would  be  vain  to  deny 
that  there  is,  in  some  parts  of  it,  an  air  of  obliquity, 
of  confusion,  of  scholastic  intricacy,  which  very 
greatly  weakens  its  dignity  and  effect.  Whether  this 
is  to  be  partially  ascribed  to  the  peril  of  his  situation ; 
or  whether  it  may  more  justly  be  considered  as  one 
unhappy  symptom  of  the  influence  of  the  scholastic 
discipline  upon  his  understanding,  none  can  pro- 
nounce, but  He  who  searcheth  the  heart  of  man.  In 
the  formation  of  our  own  judgment,  however,  it 
should  always  be  recollected,  that  we  have  this  paper 
just  as  it  has  been  transmitted  to  us  by  his  bitterest 
enemy,  the  historian  Walsingham;  that,  neverthe- 
less, with  all  its  imperfections  and  obscurities,  it  con- 
tains an  unflinching  assertion  of  certain  truths,  which 
must  have  been  as  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  adhe- 
rents of  the  Romish  hierarchy.  Dr.  Lingard,  indeed, 
would  have  us  believe  that  this  explanation  was 
received  as  orthodox,  by  the  prelates.  If  the  paper 
was  so  received,  their  lordships  must  have  been  be- 
yond comparison,  less  fastidious  than  usual.  The 
articles,  for  instance,  which  asserted  the  peccability 
of  the  Pope,  and  the  power  of  the  Christian  commu- 
nity to  correct  his  moral  aberrations,  were  proposi- 
tions of  no  easy  digestion  to  an  orthodox  and  zealous 
churchman  of  the  fourteenth  century !  And  if  the 
judges  of  Wiclif  were  able  to  receive  that  saying,  it 
is  tolerably  clear  that  their  capacity  for  it  must  have 
been  powerfully  quickened  by  the  cries  of  the  London- 
mob,  and  the  "  pompous"  message  from  the  mother 
of  the  king.  But  for  these  active  stimulants,  the 
conclusions  of  the  reformer  would  probably  have  beett 


180  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

rejected  with  every  symptom  of  abhorrence ;  and  we 
have  already  seen  that  the  Popish  chronicler  deplores 
and  reprobates  the  rapid  effect  of  these  applications 
to  the  conscience  of  the  delegates.  Even  as  it  was, 
they  felt  it  necessary  to  enjoin  that  he  should,  for  the 
future,  abstain  from  trying  the  effect  of  his  perni- 
cious preparations  upon  the  moral  constitutions  of 
the  people. 

It  should  further  be  kept  in  mind,  that  the  explana- 
tions of  Wiclif  were  still  to  be  submitted  to  the 
judgment  of  the  Pontiff,  and  that  the  impending 
terrors  of  that  judgment  had  no  effect  whatever,  in 
arresting  or  mitigating  his  exertions.  In  what  Dr. 
Lingard  calls  his  inflammatory  paper,  (his  answer  to- 
the  "  motley  divine,"  who  had  assailed  him)  his  lan~ 
guage  is,  more  than  ever,  vehement  and  uncompro- 
mising; and  this  tract,  it  must  be  observed,  was  put 
forth  at  the  very  time,  when  his  fate  was  pending  at 
Rome ;  when  every  syllable  that  fell  from  his  pen,  or 
from  his  lips,  would  be  faithfully  and  speedily  reported 
to  the  Pope ;  and  when  the  sentence  of  excommuni- 
cation might,  every  moment,  be  expected  to  burst 
upon  his  head.  And  this  sentence  must,  in  all  likeli- 
hood, have  actually  gone  forth  against  him,  had  not 
the  arm  which  wielded  the  thunder,  been  suddenly 
paralyzed  by  that  portentous  schism,  which,  soonr 
after,  astonished  and  convulsed  the  whole  Christian- 
world. 

Both  in  the  paper  which  he  presented  at  Lambeth, 
and  in  that  which  he  afterwards  submitted  to  Parlia- 
ment, Wiclif  protests  that  he  is  willing  to  defend  his 
opinions  even  unto  death  ;*  and  in  the  latter  docu- 
ment, he  distinctly  professes  that  his  object  is  a 
Wiciif's  reply  reformation  of  the  Church. f  In  his  re- 
to  the  mixtus  ply  to  his  "  motley"  antagonist,  his  pro- 
fession is  to  the  same  effect.  His  adver- 

*  Wals.  p.  206.    Lewis,  p.  60. 

1  The  concluding  words  of  that  paper  are,  "Hae  eunt  conclusiones, 
mias  vult,  etiam  usque  ad  mortem,  defendere,  ut,  per  hoc,  valeat  mores 
Ecclesiae  reformare."  Lewis,  p.  389. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  181 

sary  had  affirmed,  that  from  the  moment  any  one 
becomes  Pope,  he  likewise  becomes  incapable  of 
mortal  sin ;  an  assertion,  says  the  Reformer,  the  con- 
sequence of  which  is,  that  whatever  he  ordains,  must, 
of  necessity,  be  just  and  rightful.  The  Pope  might 
expunge  any  book  from  the  canon  of  Scripture,  or 
might  add  any  book  to  it,  or  alter  the  whole  Bible  at 
his  pleasure,  and  turn  all  the  Scriptures  into  heresy, 
and  establish  as  catholic,  a  scripture  that  is  repugnant 
to  the  truth  ?  It  was  his  opposition  to  these  mon- 
strous notions,  he  observes,  that  had  called  forth  the 
Papal  fulminations,  and  armed  the  hierarchy,  the 
University,  and  the  throne,  against  him.  He  then 
alludes  to  the  various  conclusions,  above  adverted  to, 
precisely  according  to  the  enumeration  of  them  in  his 
two  defences ;  and  he  tells  us,  that  the  mark  of  heresy 
was  most  deeply  branded  upon  those  positions,  which, 
maintain  that  the  temporalities  of  the  Church  are 
liable  to  forfeiture,  in  cases  of  habitual  abuse,  and 
that  the  Pontiff  himself  may  lawfully  be  accused  and 
corrected  by  his  subjects.  He  then  proceeds  to  vin- 
dicate those  articles  which  relate  to  the  power  of 
absolution;  and  to  denounce  as  blasphemous,  the 
assertion,  that  the  Pope,  or  the  clergy,  can  bind  or 
loose  as  effectually  as  God  himself.  Whoever  makes 
this  assertion,  he  declares  to  be  a  heretic  and  a  blas- 
phemer ;  one  that  should  not  be  allowed  by  Chris- 
tians to  live  on  earth,  much  less  to  be  their  leader  and 
their  captain,  since  his  guidance  could  only  conduct 
them  to  a  precipice.  Such  usurpation  ought  to  be 
resisted  by  the  secular  authorities ;  not  only  on  account 
of  the  heresy  whicn  denied  them  the  power  of  with- 
drawing their  alms  from  a  delinquent  Church ;  not 
only  because  it  claimed  for  the  clergy  much  more 
than  a  ministerial  distribution  of  ecclesiastical  posses- 
sions ;  but  because  it  imposed  an  Egyptian  bondage 
on  the  laity,  and  took  from  them  the  liberty  of 
the  law  of  Christ.  And  then  it  is,  that  he  goes  on  to 
exhort  the  soldiers  of  Christ,  both  secular  and  cleri- 
16 


182  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

cal,  to  stand  for  the  law  of  God  even  unto  Hood,  and 
not  to  sink  under  the  fear  of  pain,  or  the  seductions 
of  society,  or  the  love  of  worldly  profit.  "  If,"  says 
he,  "  the  Lord  Pope  himself,  at  the  suggestion  of  a 
Sergius,  or  an  apostate  Julian,  or  of  his  own  heart, 
or  at  the  instigation  of  the  devil, — nay,  if  an  angel 
from  heaven,  were  to  promulgate  such  blasphemous 
opinions, — the  faithful,  who  hear  the  honour  peculiar 
to  their  Lord  thus  unfaithfully  usurped,  must  make 
resistance  to  it,  for  the  preservation  of  the  faith. 
For  if,"  he  adds,  "  it  were  once  established,  that  the 
Pope,  or  his  Vicar,  does  really  bind  and  loose,  when- 
ever he  pretends  to  do  so,  how  shall  the  world  stand  ? 
If, — whenever  the  Pope  pretends  to  bind,  with  the 
pains  of  eternal  damnation,  all  person*  who  oppose 
nim  in  the  acquisition  of  temporal  things, — those 
persons  are  actually  so  bound ;  what  can  be  easier 
than  for  him  to  seize  on  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth,  and  to  subvert  every  ordinance  of  Christ  ?  For 
a  less  fault  than  this,  Abiathar,  was  deposed  by  Solo- 
mon, Peter  reproved  to  the  face  by  Paul,  and  Pontiffs 
unseated  by  emperors  and  kings.  What,  then,  should 
hinder  the  faithful  from  complaining  of  much  deeper 
injuries  offered  to  their  God  ?  You  are  told  that 
secular  men  must  not  lay  a  finger  on  the  possessions 
of  the  clergy;  that  ecclesiastics  are  placed  beyond 
the  reach  of  secular  justice  ;  that  if  the  Pope  issue  his 
decree,  the  world  must  instantly  obey  his  pleasure. 
If  this,  indeed,  be  so,  what  follows,  but  that  your 
wives,  and  your  daughters,  and  your  worldly  substance, 
are  all  at  the  mercy  of  the  Pontiff,  and  his  priesthood ; 
yea,  that  the  whole  order  of  the  world  may  be  sub- 
verted !  And  is  impiety  like  this  to  be  endured  by 
Christian  men  ?"* 

Such  was  the  testimony  lifted  up,  at  the  close  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  against  the  gigantic  power 
of  the  Vatican.  Such  was  the  voice  which,  in  this 

*  See  Lewis,  p.  78—50. 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  183 

country,  may  be  said  to  have  opened  those  mighty 
pleadings,  that  were  continued,  at  intervals,  from 
generation  to  generation,  until  the  days  of  Luther, 
when  the  cause  was  brought  to  its  glorious  arbitre- 
ment.  In  producing,  however,  the  memorable  words 
of  these  three  Papers,  I  am  not  to  be  understood  as 
the  advocate  for  every  doctrine  they  convey.  Wiclif, 
beyond  all  doubt,  both  on  this,  and  on  many  other 
occasions,  expressed  himself  in  language  wiclif  s  views 
which  may  seem  almost  to  justify  the  with  regard  to 
charge,  that,  by  his  system,  all  ecclesi-  Church  proper- 
astical  possessions  were  marked  out  for 
spoliation.*  It  must  be  allowed  that  he  taught  a 
lesson  to  princes,  and  to  nobles,  and  to  commoners, 
which  they  were  all  abundantly  willing  to  learn ;  and 
most  zealously,  in  a  future  age,  did  they  "  better  the 
instruction  !"  At  the  same  time,  I  cannot  but  repeat 
my  belief  that  a  somewhat  more  sweeping  principle 
of  forfeiture  and  confiscation  has  often  been  ascribed 
to  him,  than  the  general  tenor  of  his  writings  will 
fairly  warrant.  The  hierarchy  of  those  days  seemed 
to  think  and  to  act,  as  if  the  earth  were  theirs — as  if 
the  work  of  clerical  appropriation  was  neither  more 
nor  less  than  a  redemption  of  worldly  wealth  and 
substance  from  unhallowed  uses — and  that  to  touch 
their  possessions,  however  fraudulently  acquired,  or 
however  scandalously  abused,  was  to  be  guilty  of  an 
impious  desecration,  which  no  enormity  of  Church- 
men could  justify  in  the  sight  of  God  or  man.  The 
spirit  of  Wiclif  was  stirred  within  him  to  protest 
against  these  principles.  He  accordingly  laboured 
to  recall  the  attention  of  the  world  to  the  original  of 
all  these  sacred  endowments :  to  show,  that  they 
were  derived  from  the  voluntary  and  pious  liberality 
of  laymen,  under  the  implied  condition  that  they 
were  to  be  used  for  the  temporal  and  eternal  benefit 
of  the  human  ia.ce.  This,  however,  he  unfortunately 

*  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  vol.  ii.  p.  358.  fourth  edit. 


184  LIFE   OF  WTCLIF. 

in  what  sense  did  by  the  reiterated  application  of  a 
derediftheCOn>s  veiT  dangerous  syllable.  Alms  was  the 
soSons'oMhe  designation  which  he  gave  to  clerical 
church  as  aims,  emolument  of  almost  every  description: 
and  this  little  word,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  admi- 
rably fitted  to  make  popular  and  current  the  conve- 
nient notion,  that  religious  ministers  are  to  be  solely 
dependent  on  the  feelings  and  the  caprices  of  their 
congregations.  He  sometimes,  indeed,  speaks  of  the 
possessions  of  the  Church  as  alms  in  perpetuity  ; — as 
alms,  because  they  had  their  origin  in  the  religious 
bounty  of  secular  men :  as  held  in  perpetuity,  because 
they  were  granted  by  the  donors  without  any  limita- 
tion of  time.  Nevertheless,  two  things  seem  quite 
indisputable;  first,  that,  in  his  judgment,  it  would 
have  been  much  better  for  the  Church,  if  her  minis- 
ters had  never  been  invested  with  secular  possessions 
at  all;  and,  secondly,  that,  in  cases  of  flagrant  abuse 
or  neglect,  the  revocation  of,  such  grants  fell,  not 
only  within  the  competency  of  the  temporal  authori- 
ties, but  within  the  line  of  their  positive  duty.  Such 
cases,  he  conceived,  were  perpetually  occurring,  un- 
der the  system  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  which  it  was 
the  business  of  his  whole  life  to  denounce,  and,  if 
possible,  to  reform  :  and  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  the 
tone  in  which  he  called  for  the  correction  of  that 
system  was,  often,  as  inflammatory  as  his  principles 
themselves  were  questionable  and  hazardous. 

It  may  be  convenient  to  introduce,  in  this  place,  a 
circumstance  which  occurred  in  the  course  of  the  fol- 
lowing year,  highly  characteristic  of  Wiclif 's  uncon- 
querable energy.  Worn  out  by  the  toil  of  incessant 
composition,  and  by  the  anxieties  occasioned  by  his 
1379  recent  prosecution,  he  was  seized  with 
Wiclif  s  dan-  an  alarming  sickness,  while  at  Oxford, 
gerous sickness.  ^  the  beginning  of  1379.  His  old  ad- 
versaries, the  Mendicants,  were  in  hopes  that,  with 
him,  the  season  of  suffering  and  danger  would,  like- 
wise, be  the  season  of  weakness ;  and  that  they 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  185 

might,  thus,  have  an  opportunity  of  extorting  from 
him  some  healing  acknowledgment  of  his  manifold 
sins  against  their  Order.  With  this  view, 
they  resolved  to   send  a  deputation  of  geverlf^f  the 
their  body  to  his  sick  bed ;  and,  in  order  Mendicants, 
to  heighten  the  solemnity  of  the  pro-  who  exhort  him 

i .    °     i  i  /  i    j  i       t°  repentance. 

ceedin°f,  they  took  care  to  be  attended  by 
the  civil  authorities.  Four  of  their  own  doctors,  or 
regents,  together  with  as  many  senators  of  the  city, 
or  aldermen  of  the  wards,  accordingly  entered  his 
chamber ;  and  finding  him  stretched  upon  his  bed, 
they  opened  their  commission  by  wishing  him  a 
happy  recovery  from  his  distemper.  They  soon  en- 
tered, however,  on  the  more  immediate  object  of 
their  embassy.  They  reminded  him  of  the  grievous 
wrongs  he  had  heaped  upon  their  fraternity,  both  by 
his  sermons  and  his  writings  ;  they  admonished  him 
that,  to  all  appearance,  his  last  hour  was  approach- 
ing; and  they  expressed  their  hope  that  he  would  seize 
the  opportunity,  thus  afforded  him,  of  making  them, 
the  only  reparation  in  his  power,  and  penitently  re- 
voking, in  their  presence,  whatever  he  might  have 
uttered  or  published  to  their  disparagement.  This 
exhortation  was  heard  by  him  in  silence :  but  when 
it  was  concluded,  he  ordered  his  servants  to  raise  him 
on  his  pillows ;  and  then,  fixing  his  eyes  upon  the 
company,  he  said,  with  a  firm  voice,  "  I 
shall  not  die,  but  live,  and  again  declare  ] 
the  evil  deeds  of  the  Friars."  The  consternation  of 
the  doctors  may  easily  be  imagined.  They  imme- 
ately  retired  in  confusion ;  and  Wiclif  was  happily, 
raised  up  again,  and  spared  for  several  years  longer, 
during  which  time  he  amply  redeemed  his  pledge  of 
renewed  hostility  to  the  Mendicants. 


16* 


188  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

CHAPTER  VL 
1379-1381. 


Origin  of  the  Papal  Schism—  WicliJ ''*  "  Schtema  Papa"— Hi* 
Treatise  on  the  truth  and  meaning  of  Scripture — His  Postils — 
Wiclifasa  Parish  P  ^est— Picture  of  the  Clergy  of  that  age  from, 
his  tract,  "  How  the  Ouice  of  Curate  is  ordained  of  God'1 — Widif's 
translation  of  the  Scriptures — Notice  of  previous  versions  of 
parts  of  the  "bible — C&dmon — Alfred — JEljric — The  Ormulum — 
Sowle-hele — Rolle,  the  hermit  of  Ilampnle — Elucidarinm  Biblio- 


proscnoed  by  the  Church,  but,  nevertheless,  widely  circulated— 
insurrection  of  the  Peasantry — Causes  assigned  for  it  by  Papal 
writers — its  real  cause,  probably,  the  wretchedness  ana  degra- 
dation of  the  peasantry — Possibly  aggravated  by  the  growing 
impatience  of  Ecclesiastical  power — Injustice  of  ascribing  it  to 
the  religious  opinions  ofWiclifand  his  followers. 

IT  will  be  remembered  by  all  who  have  Origin  of  the 
any  acquaintance  with  ecclesiastical  his-  Pa?al  Schism. 
tory,  that  very  early  in  the  fourteenth  century  the 
Papal  residence  was  removed  from  Rome  to  Avig- 
non. The  first  prelate  that  submitted  to  this  migra- 
tion was  Clement  the  fifth,  a  native  of  France,  who, 
being  indebted  for  his  elevation  to  the  influence  of 
Philip  the  Fair,  complied  with  the  urgent  wish  of 
that  monarch,  that  the  head  of  that  Church  should 
be  constantly  within  his  own  dominions.  This  de- 
sertion of  the  ancient  seat  of  spiritual  empire  was 
contemptuously  styled  by  the  Italians  the  Babylonish 
captivity :  and,  in  truth,  no  form  of  sarcastic  speech 
could  well  be  too  strong  to  describe  the  irreparable 
disaster  and  disgrace  which  this  transfer  inflicted  on 
the  Apostolic  See.  The  absence  of  the  vicegerent  of 
Christ  was  a  signal  for  all  the  winds  of  faction  to 
break  loose,  and  to  fight  against  the  honour  of  the 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  187 

Church,  and  the  peace  of  Italy.  During  this  calami- 
tous period,  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter  was  ravaged, 
and  the  authority  of  his  successor  frequently  treated 
with  contempt.  The  thunders  which  shook  the  world 
when  they  issued  from  the  seven  hills,  sent  forth  an 
uncertain  sound,  comparatively  faint  and  powerless, 
when  launched  from  a  region  of  less  elevated  sanc- 
tity. The  mighty  voice  which  formerly  made  earthly 
potentates  tremble,  now  seemed  almost  to  whisper 
out  of  the  dust;  so  that  the  terrors  of  the  Inquisition 
itself  were,  sometimes,  scarcely  sufficient  to  keep 
alive  the  belief,  that  Christ  had  any  longer  a  delegate 
or  an  oracle  upon  earth. 

The  termination  of  this  captivity  was,  if  possible, 
still  more  calamitous  to  the  Papacy,  than  its  com- 
mencement and  its  continuance.  On  the  death  of 
Gregory  XL  in  1378,  the  people  of  Rome,  disgusted 
and  enraged  by  the  spectacle  of  a  long  succession  of 
Frenchmen  in  the  Papal  chair,  terrified  the  conclave, 
(a  majority  of  which  were,  likewise,  Frenchmen,) 
into  the  election  of  an  Italian  prelate,  Bartholomeo 
de  Pregnano,  who,  together  with  the  tiara,  assumed 
the  name  of  Urban  VI.  His  insolence  and  rapacity 
soon  drove  the  Cardinals  from  Rome  to  the  territory 
of  Naples,  where  they  collected  courage  to  declare 
their  former  choice  a  nullity,  and  to  substitute  for 
Urban,  Robert,  Count  of  Geneva,  since  known  by 
the  name  of  Clement  VII.  Which  of  these  two  was 
lawfully  entitled  to  the  pontifical  throne,  is,  to  this 
hour,  a  subject  of  debate.  Each  party,  however, 
seemed  to  be  confident  of  his  own  right :  and  the 
Italian,  accordingly,  remained  at  Rome,  while  the 
Frenchman  adopted  the  example  of  his  eight  prede- 
cessors, and  fixed  his  residence  at  Avignon.  The 
cause  of  Clement  was  maintained  by  France,  Spain, 
Scotland,  Sicily,  and  Cyprus.  The  rest  of  Europe 
acknowledged  Urban  to  be  the  true  vicar  of  Christ. 
And  thus,  to  use  the  subsequent  language  of  Wiclif, 
"  the  head  of  Anti-Christ  was  cloven  in  twain,  and 


188  LIFE  OP  WICLIf. 

the  two  parts  were  made  to  fight  against  each 
other." 

Historians  present  us  with  a  frightful  picture  of 
the  miseries  inflicted  on  Christendom  by  this  great 
schism  of  the  West.  In  the  first  place,  there  was  the 
odious  spectacle  of  two  competitors  for  the  spiritual 
vicegerency  assailing  each  other  with  dire  and  vin- 
dictive fulminations.  Then  followed  the  utter  dis- 
solution of  morals  among  the  ministers  of  Christ, 
who  assumed  the  aspect  rather  of  conflicting  powers 
of  evil  than  messengers  of  peace.  Lastly  came  the 
distraction,  and  desolatipn  of  heart,  suffered  by  pious 
and  sorrowing  multitudes,  who  knew  not  where  to 
look  for  the  representative  of  their  Saviour  on  earth, 
and  who  thus  fancied  themselves  cut  off  from  that 
communion  with  the  Head  of  the  Church,  from  which 
alone  they  would  derive  any  hope  of  salvation. 
Society  appeared,  for  a  long  period,  in  imminent 
danger  of  being  utterly  cast  loose  from  the  anchor- 
age either  of  faith,  or  hope,  or  charity.  In  short, 
the  haunts  of  Superstition  seemed  to  be  burst  open, 
and  to  disclose  their  secrets  to  the  gaze  of  men  and 
angels.  But  the  march  of  God's  Omnipotence  was 
in  the  midst  of  this  confusion.  The  tribulation  of 
those  days  was  a  part  of  the  process  by  which  his 
Church  was  enabled  to  shake  off  her  impurities.  The 
Papal  power  was  then  smitten  with  a  deep  and  des- 
perate wound  ;  and  though  she  at  length  appeared  to 
"  close  and  be  herself,"  her  full  strength  never  return- 
ed unto  her ;  and  half  the  world  was  enabled,  after 
many  a  convulsive  struggle,  to  break  away  from  her 
deadly  embrace. 

By  these  commotions,  the  elements  of  destruction 
which  had  been  gathering  over  the  head  of  Wiclif 
were  for  a  time  dispersed.  The  fury  of  the  rival 
Pontiffs  was  wasted  upon  the  adherents  of  each 
other;  and,  in  the  midst  of  this  most  unhallowed 
strife,  the  delinquencies  of  the  English  heretic  seem 
to  have  been  well  nigh  forgotten.  To  him,  however, 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  189 

the  imminent  peril,  which  had  just  passed  away, 
brought  no  thoughts  of  relaxation.  On  the  contrary, 
the  Papal  schism,  to  which  he  prohably  owed  his 
safety,  became  instantly  the  object  of  his  indignant 
assault.  At  the  very  outset  01  the  conflict,  Wiclif 
was  soon  ready  with  a  treatise  on  the 
subject,  in  which  he  invites  the  sove-  J^p^f0***" 
reigns  of  Christendom  to  seize  the  occa- 
sion, which  Providence  had  sent  them,  of  shaking  to 
pieces  the  whole  fabric  of  the  Romish  dominion. 
"  Trust  we  in  the  help  of  Christ " — he  exclaims — 
"  for  he  hath  begun  already  to  help  us  graciously,  in 
that  he  hath  cloven  the  head  of  Anti- Christ,  and  made 
the  two  parts  fight  against  each  other;  for  it  cannot  be 
doubtful  that  the  sin  of  the  Popes,  which  hath  so 
long  continued,  hath  brought  in  the  division."  The 
time,  he  said,  was  now  come  for  "  Emperors  and 
kings  to  help,  in  this  cause,  to  maintain  God's  law, 
to  recover  the  heritage  of  the  Church,  and  to  destroy 
the  foul  sins  of  clerks,  saving  their  persons.  Thus 
should  peace  be  established,  and  simony  destroyed." 
The  suffrages  of  cardinals  or  of  princes,  could  never, 
he  adds,  confer  on  man  an  immunity  from  error ; 
"  the  children  of  the  fiend  should,  therefore,  learn 
their  logic  and  their  philosophy  well,  lest  they  prove 
heretical  by  a  false  understanding  of  the  law  of 
Christ :  and,  of  all  heresies,  none  could  be  greater 
than  the  belief  that  a  man  may  be  absolved  from  sin, 
if  he  give  money,  or  because  a  priest  layeth  his  hand 
on  the  head,  and  saith  /  absolve  thee.  Thou  must  be 
sorrowful  in  thy  heart,  or  God  absolveth  thee  not." 
He  then  goes  on  positively  to  deny  the  necessity  of 
confessing  to  a  priest ;  and,  lastly,  he  calls  on  the 
secular  powers  to  gird  them  up  to  the  great  work  of 
ecclesiastical  reformation.* 
Nearly  about  the  same  time  with  the  above,  ap- 

*  "SchismaPapae."    There  is  a  copy  of  this  Tract  in  Trin.  Coll 
Dublin.    Class  C,  tab,  3,  No.  12,    See  Vaughan,  vol.  ii,  p.  4, 


190  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

peared  his  work  "  on  the  Truth  and 
Xh  l°nami  Meaning  of  Scripture;"  one  of  the  most 
Meaning  ^  of  copious  and  important  of  all  his  per- 
formances. If  this  were  the  only  monu- 
ment which  Wiclif  had  left  us,  it  would  have  been 
nearly  sufficient  to  put  us  in  full  possession  of 
his  opinions  and  his  views,  relative  to  every  mo- 
mentous question  connected  with  religion.  In  this 
volume  he  contends  for  the  ^supreme  authority,  and 
entire  sufficiency,  of  the  Scriptures,  and  for  the  ne- 
cessity of  translating  them  into  English.  He  more- 
over insists,  intrepidly  and  faithfully,  on  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  discusses  every  branch  of  the  cleri- 
cal power,  and  examines  every  department  of  moral 
obligation.*  A  work  like  this  would,  alone,  have 
been  enough  to  entitle  him  to  the  veneration  and 
gratitude  of  this  country,  as  the  great  herald  and 
forerunner  of  her  reformation. 

w  IT  P  'i  Among  the  voluminous  remains  of 
3'  Wiclif,  ample  specimens  are  to  be  found 
of  his  instructions  from  the  pulpit,  delivered,  proba- 
bly, between  the  year  1376,  when  he  was  presented 
to  the  rectory  of  Lutterworth,  and  his  death,  which 
happened  in  1384.  Of  the  value  of  this  species  of 
ministration,  his  estimate  appears  to  have  been  very 
exalted :  and  it  is  further  evident,  from  his  extant 
labours,  that  he  selected  that  species  of  it  which,  if 
skilfully  and  vigorously  executed,  is,  of  all  »others, 
most  useful  and  edifying,  and  which,  unquestionably, 
is  most  in  conformity  with  the  primitive  practice. 
The  preachers  of  those  days  had  two  methods  of 
addressing  their  congregations  from  the  pulpit :  they 
either  announced  some  particular  subject,  on  which 
it  was  their  intention  to  enlarge;  and  in  that  case, 
their  discourse  assumed  something  of  the  form  of  an 
oration,  or  declamatory  essay :  and  this,  in  the  tech- 
nical language  of  the  times,  was  known  by  the  name 

'  Lewis,  p.  81. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  191 

of  declaring :  or,  else,  they  read  to  their  audience  a 
certain  portion  of  Scripture,  which  they  proceeded  to 
illustrate  by  exposition,  and  to  render  practically 
useful  in  the  way  of  application.  This  latter  method 
was  designated  by  the  barbarous  term  of  "postulat- 
ing ;"*  that  is,  explaining  by  a  sort  of  running  com- 
mentary. Another  practice,  of  much  less  ancient 
example,  was  that  of  choosing  one  or  more  verses  of 
Scripture,  and  raising  upon  them  a  superstructure  of 
exhortation  or  disquisition.  In  those  days  of  meta- 
physical dissection,  the  preacher  was  frequently 
tempted,  by  this  practice,  into  a  labyrinth  of  divisions 
and  subdivisions :  and,  in  later  times,  the  same 
method  has,  virtually,  brought  back  the  ancient  prac- 
tice of  declaring  ;  for,  with  us,  the  text  is  often  little 
more  than  a  scriptural  motto,  which  serves  to  an- 
nounce the  subject  of  the  oration  or  discourse.  It  is 
probable  that  the  expository  method  has  been  gra- 
dually abandoned,  from  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
conducting  it  with  sufficient  force  and  animation ;  the 
statement  of  their  own  thoughts  being,  to  many,  an 
easier  task,  than  that  of  illustrating  facts  and  charac- 
ters, or  developing  the  precepts  and  meditations  of 
other  teachers.  This  method,  however,  of  postilla- 
tion,  or  exposition,  was  the  form  selected  by  Wiclif 
for  his  parochial  instructions.  Some  three  hundred 
of  his  manuscript  homilies  are  still  preserved  in  the 
British  Museum,  and  the  libraries  of  Cambridge  and 
Dublin,  and  in  other  collections.  Of  these  many 
consist  of  little  more  than  brief  notes,  thrown  to- 
gether, apparently,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  recalling 
to  his  memory  the  points  on  which  it  was  his  inten- 
tion to  enlarge.  Others,  again,  are  more  completely 
wrought  out,  and  sometimes  approach  to  the  form 
and  length  of  a  modern  sermon.  We  learn  from 
one,f  who  has  laboriously  examined  the  whole  of 

*  Postilla  is  a  word  of  degenerate  Latinity,  signifying  a  marginal 
glosB,  or  commentary. 

t  Mr.  Vaughan,  whose  account  of  WicliPs  homilies  may  be  found  in 
his  second  volume,  p.  12—36. 


192  LIFE   OF  WICL1F. 

them,  that  "  there  is  scarcely  a  peculiarity  of  opinion 
adopted  by  Wiclif,  the  nature  or  the  progress  of 
which  mi^ht  not  be  illustrated  from  these  volumin- 
ous remains."  They  are  uniformly  adapted  to  the 
purposes  of  popular  instruction ;  and  the  Reformer 
evidently  considered  it  as  no  departure  from  that 
office,  to  assail  the  abuses  of  the  hierarchy,  and  to 
denounce  them  to  his  people  as  the  grand  impedi- 
ment to  their  moral  and  spiritual  progress.  Through- 
out, the  holy  Scriptures  are  represented  as  the  su- 
preme authority  from  which  we  are  to  seek  the 
knowledge  of  our  duty,  and  the  grounds  of  our  social 
and  moral  obligations ;  the  great  truths  of  the  Gos- 
pel are  plainly  and  faithfully  set  forth;  the  frailty 
and  depravity  of  man  are  urgently  insisted  on ;  the 
sufferings  and  merits  of  the  Saviour,  are  represented 
as  the  only  ground  on  which  the  sinner  can  rest  his 
hope  of  pardon  and  acceptance  ;  and  the  influence  of 
the  Eternal  Spirit,  as  the  only  fire  which  can  baptize 
the  hearts  of  men  unto  holiness  and  purity. 

One  or  two  extracts  from  the  sermons  of  "Wiclif 
are  here  introduced ;  as  some  curiosity*  may  natu- 

*  For  the  power  of  gratifying  their  curiosity  in  this  respect,  the  public 
is  partly  indebted  to  the  industry  of  Mr.  Vaughan,  and  partly  to  that 
of  the  compilers  above  mentioned,  in  whose  recent  publication  may  be 
found  copious  specimens  of  Wiclif's  Postils,  p.  186—336.  Some  few 
passages,  indeed,  had  previously  been  given  by  Mr.  Turner,  in  his  His- 
tory of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  426,  427.  In  those  extracts  he  has  preserved 
the  anc'rent  orthography.  A  «pecimen  or  two  of  these  venerable  remains, 
in  their  primitive  form,  are  here  subjoined. 

"And  thus  seyen  these  folk  to  the  princes  of  the  world,  that  these  here- 
tikes  (the  Lollards)  ben  false  men  agenis  holy  religioun  ;  and  they  casten 
to  destroy  lordships  and  reumes ;  ami  therefore  to  maund  them  to  be 
dede,  orlettthemto  speke.  But  lordis  seyen  again,  that  they  scholden 
knowe  thelawe  that  Holy  Churche  hath  to  punische  such  heretikes;  and 
therefore  they  scholden  go  forth  and  punish  hem  by  herp  lawe.  Bi  such 
execution  of  such  false  Prelatis  and  freris  is  Goddes  lawe  q  wench  id,  and 
Ante-Christs  arered.  But  God  wolde,  that  these  lords  passeden  Pilat  in 
this  poynt,  and  knew  the  treuthe  of  Goddes  law  in  here  moder  tonge, 
and  have  this  two  folke  in  suspecte  for  here  cursed  lyvynge,  and  hidynge 
of  his  lawe  from  knowinge  of  seculeres :  for,  by  this  cautel  of  the  fend  ben 
manye  trewe  men  qwenchid." 

The  following  is  the  style  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  pomp  and  grandeur 
of  the  high  ecclesiastics:  "In  this  point  men  synnen,  specially  the  gret- 
tisteof  Hie  cherche;  for  they  suwen  nat  Christe  here,  but  Ante- Christ 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  193 

rally  be  felt  respecting  the  addresses  of  so  eminent  a 
preacher,  to  a  parochial  congregation  in  the  four- 
teenth century.  One  of  the  first  things  that  srikes  us 
in  these  discourses,  is,  the  entire  confidence  with 
which  they  apply  to  the  Papacy  the  character  of 
Anti-Christ.  "  The  laws  and  judgments,"  says  the 
preacher,  "  which  Anti-Christ  brought  in,  and  added 
to  the  law  of  God,  mar  too  much  the  Church  of  Christ. 
For,  with  the  stewards  of  the  Church,  the  laws  of 
Anti-Christ  are  the  rules  by  which  they  make  offi- 
cers therein :  and,  to  deceive  the  laity,  Anti-Christ 
challengeth  to  be,  in  such  things,  fully  God's  fellow. 
For  he  affirms  that,  if  he  judgeth  thus,  his  will 
should  be  taken  for  reason ;  whereas,  this  is  the 
highest  point  that  falleth  to  the  Godhead.  Popes 
and  kings,  therefore,  should  seek  a  reason  above 
their  own  will :  for  such  blasphemy  often  bringeth 
to  men  more  than  the  pride  of  Lucifer.  He  said  he 
would  ascend,  and  be  like  the  Most  High ;  but  he 
challenged  not  to  be  the  fellow  of  God, — even  with 
him  or  passing  him.  May  God  bring  down  this 
pride,  and  help,  that  his  word  may  reverse  that  of 
the  fiend !  We//,  indeed,  I  know,  that  when  it  is  at  the 
highest,  this  smoke  shall  disappear"*  Again:  "  It  is 
known  that  Anti-Christ  hath  enthralled  the  Church 
more  than  it  was  under  the  old  law,  though  then  the 
service  was  not  to  be  borne.  New  laws  are  now 
made  by  Anti-Christ,  and  such  as  are  not  founded  on 
the  laws  of  the  Saviour.  More  ceremonies  are  now 
brought  in,  and  more  do  they  tarry  men  in  coming 
to  heaven  than  did  the  traditions  of  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees.  One  cord  of  this  thraldom,  is  the  lordship 

and  the  world.  Loke  at  the  Pope  first,  and  his  Cavdinalis,  whether  they 
taken  no  wordly  worse  hipe.  but  ben  the  lest,  and  the  moost  meke  of  an 
oth re.  More  foul  pride  and  covetise  is  in  no  lord  of  the  world.  Go  we 
to  bishopis  binetne  them,  and  rich  abbotis,  fadris  of  covemis;  and  these 
axcn  worldly  worschipis;  and  by  this  may  men  know  hem.  And  gif 
thon  go  down  to  freris,  that  been  beggeris,  that  scholden  be  mekest,  more 
worschipe  of  ther  brethren  taketh  no  man  in  this  world,  as  bi  knelinge, 
with  kissinse  of  feet." — Turner,  vol.  ii.  p.  426,  notes  50, 51. 
•  Vaughan,  vol.  ii.  p.  26, 27. 


194  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

claimed  by  Anti-Christ,  as  being  full  lord,  both  of 
spirituals  and  temporals.  Thus  lie  turneth  Christian 
men  aside  from  serving  Christ  in  Christian  freedom  ; 
so  much  so,  that  they  might  well  say,  as  the  poet  saith 
in  his  fable,  the  frogs  said  to  the  harrow,  *  cursed  be 
so  many  masters  /'  For,  in  this  day,  Christian  men 
are  oppressed,  now  with  Popes,  and  now  with 
bishops ;  now  with  cardinals  under  Popes,  and  now 
with  prelates  under  bishops ;  and  now  their  head  is 
assailed  with  censures.  In  short,  buffeted  are  they, 
as  men  would  serve  a  football.  But,  certainly,  if  the 
Baptist  were  not  worthy  to  loose  the  latchet  of  the 
shoe  of  Christ,  Anti-Christ  hath  no  power  to  impede 
the  freedom  which  Christ  hath  bou^nt.  Christ  gave 
this  freedom  to  men,  that  they  might  come  to  the 
bliss  of  heaven  with  less  difficulty ;  but  Anti-Christ 
burdens  them  that  they  may  give  him  money.  Foul, 
therefore,  is  this  doing,  both  to  God  and  his  law."* 

Doctrine  like  this  must  have  made  the  ears  of  the 
good  people  of  Lutterworth  to  tingle  again  !  They 
had  probably  heard  nothing  at  all  resembling  it  from 
his  predecessor :  and  if  so,  they  must  almost  have 
looked  to  see  the  roof  of  their  church  falling  upon 
their  heads,  when  it  first  echoed  to  sounds  of  such 
audacity.  Equally  strange  to  mos,t  of  them,  though 
not  perhaps  so  fearfully  astounding,- were  his  instruc- 
tions on  the  mode  ot  their  acceptance  with  God. 
Having  solemnly  dwelt  on  the  supreme  majesty  of 
Jehovah,  and  shown  that  His  justice  must  be  violated 
by  forgiving  sin  without  an  atonement,  ("  else  must 
He  give  free  license  to  sin,  both  in  angels  and  men, 
and  then  sin  were  no  sin,  and  our  God  were  no  God,") 
he  proceeds  to  consider  what  that  atonement  must 
be.  His  people,  probably,  might,  at  first,  have  ex- 
pected to  hear  of  the  good  offices  of  the  saints,  or  of 
the  maternal  influence  and  authority  of  the  H6ly 
Virgin,  who  alone  could  secure  the  effective  interces- 

*  Vaughan,  vol.  ii.  p.  27,  28. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  195 

sion  of  her  Son,  in  behalf  of  transgression  against  the 
laws  of  the  Father.  Not  a  syllable  of  all  this  did 
they  hear  from  the  parson  of  Lutterworth.  He  refers, 
directly  and  solely,  to  the  only  Name  whereby  men 
can  be  saved  ;  and  this  in  language  which  might  en- 
tirely become  a  Protestant  pulpit  at  the  present  day. 
"  The  person,"  he  says,  "  who  may  make  atonement 
for  the  sin  of  our  first  father,  must  needs  be  God  and 
man.  For,  as  mankind  trespassed,  so  must  man- 
kind make  satisfaction  :  and,  therefore,  it  could  not  be 
that  an  angel  should  make  satisfaction  for  man ;  for 
neither  has  he  the  might,  nor  was  his  the  person  (or 
nature)  that  here  sinned.  But,  since  all  men  are  one 
person,  if  any  member  of  this  person  make  satisfac- 
tion, the  whole  person  maketh  it.  And  by  this  we 
may  see  that,  if  God  made  a  man  of  nought,  or  anew, 
to  be  of  the  kind  of  Adam,  yet  he  was  holden  to  God, 
as  much  as  he  might,  for  himself;  and  so  he  might 
not  make  satisfaction  for  himself,  and  also  for  Adam's 
sin.  Since  then,  satisfaction  .must  be  made  for  the 
sin  of  Adam,  as  it  has  been  said,  such  a  person  must 
make  this  satisfaction,  as  was  both  God  and  man ; 
for,  the  worthiness  of  such  a  person's  deeds  would  be 
even  with  the  unworthiness  of  the  sin."*  The  whole 
tenor  of  his  ministrations  points  to  the  agonies  of  this 
Divine  and  Incarnate  Saviour  as  .the  only  object  on 
which  the  thoughts  of  men  are  to  be  fixed,  when  they 
are  seeking  forgiveness  and  salvation :  and  the  prac- 
tical inference  is,  that  "  we  follow  after  Christ  in  his 
blessed  passion, — that  we  keep  ourselves  from  sin 
hereafter, — and  gather  a  devout  mind  from  him."f 
In  speaking  of  the  deservings  of  man,  and  the  grace 
of  God,  he  will  be  found  to  set  his  face,  like  a  flint, 
against  the  current  notion  of  man's  sufficient  and 
meritorious  righteousness.  He  teaches  us  to  look  up 
to  God  as  the  only  source  of  whatever  may  be  good 

*  On  the  Nativity  of  Christ.    Postils,  p.  187,  ubi  supri. 
t  Similar  statements  may  be  found  iu  his  Sermon  on  the  Priesthood 
of  Christ    Postils,  p.  204,  <fcc. 


196  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

or  acceptable  within  us.  "We  should  know,"  he 
says,  '' ihat  faith  is  a  gift  of  God ;  and  so  God  gives  it 
not  to  man,  unless  he  gives  it  graciously.  Thus,  in- 
deed, all  good  things  which  men  have,  are  of  God: 
and,  accordingly,  when  God  rewardeth  a  good  work  in 
man,  he  crowneth  his  own  gift.  All  this  is  of  grace ; 
even  as  all  things  are  of  grace,  that  men  have,  of  the 
will  of  God.  God's  goodness  is  the  first  cause  which 
giveth  men  these  good  things  :  and  so,  it  may  not  be 
that  God  doeth  good  to  men,  but  if  [except]  he  do  it 
freely,  by  his  own  grace :  and,  with  this,  we  shall 
grant  that  men  deserve  of  God."  He  then  proceeds 
to  express  his  utter  contempt  for  the  Pelagian  doc- 
trines on  this  point : — "  The  chiding  of  idiots,  such  as 
was  Pelagius,  and  others,  who  conceive  that  nothing 
may  be, — unless  it  is  of  itself,  as  substances  are, — is 
to  be  scorrred  and  left  to  fools."*  The  freedom  and 
sovereignty  of  Divine  grace  are  here  brought  out  into 
very  bold  relief;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose, 
from  the  whole  complexion  of  his  writings,  that 
Wiclif  held  this  doctrine  in  connexion  with  the  belief, 
that  the  sanctifying  influence  can  never  dispense  with 
the  necessity  of  moral  exertion  on  the  part  of  man. 

These  specimens  may  serve  to  show  the  spirit  in 
which  the  Reformer  discharged  the  office  of  a  preacher ; 
an  office,  the  neglect  of  which  he  regarded  as  the 
"  foulest  treason"  to  Christ ;  for  this,  he  says,  "  Christ 
enjoined  on  his  disciples  more  than  any  other:  by 
this  he  conquered  the  world  out  of  the  fiend's  hand ; 
and  whosoever  he  be  that  can  but  bring  priests  to  act 
thus,  hath  authority  from  God,  and  merit  in  his  deed."t 
That  his  labours,  in  this  line  of  duty,  were  abundant, 

*  The  Leper  and  the  Centurion.  Postils,  p.  193.  ubi  supri.  I  suppose 
that  the  intention  of  the  Reformer,  here,  is,  to  condemn  the  notion  which 
represented  responsible  beings  as  resembling  mere  substances,  whose 
essence  is  entirely  independent  of  the  qualities,  and  properties,  which  the 
Creative  Wisdom  may  have  been  pleased  to  annex  to  them.  Men  are  to 
be  considered,  not  merely  with  reference  to  any  thing  inherent,  essential, 
or  unalterable  in  their  natures ;  but  according  to  the  worth  which  may 
te  communicated  to  them  by  the  free  and  unbought  grace  of  God, 

t  Epistola  ad  Simplices  Sacerdotes. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIfr.  197 

ns  well  as  faithful  and  enlightened,  may  be  concluded 
from  the  fact,  that  so  many  as  300  of  his  familiar 
Sermons,  or  Postils,  still  remain,  notwithstanding 
his  writings  were  marked  out  for  destruction  after 
his  death;  and  that  many  of  them  actually  perished, 
under  the  vigilance  and  activity  with  which  the  pro- 
scription was  carried  on.  That  his  diligence  in 
communicating  instruction  to  the  people,  in  their  na- 
tive tongue,  was  one  grand  instrument  by  which  the 
diffusion  of  his  opinions  was  accomplished,  is  beyond 
all  controversy.  The  example  was  followed  up  with 
indefatigable  vigour,  by  his  adherents ;  and  a  power 
was  thus  put  forth,  in  defence  of  the  truth,  similar  to 
that  which  Innocent  the  Third  had  called  into  action  for 
the  support  of  falsehood  and  corruption.  It  is  noto- 
rious, that  the  Mendicant  Orders,  at  their  first  insti- 
tution, were  the  most  popular  and  effective  preachers 
of  their  day.  The  Franciscans,  more  especially,  were 
to  be  found  in  every  village ;  and  by  the  unwearied 
assiduity  of  their  ministrations,  they,  and  the  Domi- 
nicans, at  one  time,  nearly  monopolized  the  venera- 
tion and  obedience  of  the  populace  throughout  the 
Christian  world.  One  great  secret  of  their  power 
was  the  practice  of  addressing  the  people  in  a  familiar 
style,  and  in  the  language  of  their  country.  The  sin- 
cere and  genuine  words  of  eternal  life,  indeed,  were 
never  heard  from  their  lips.  Lying  miracles — legen- 
dary histories — puerile  and  monstrous  fables — "  chro- 
nicles of  the  world — and  stories  of  the  battle  of  Troy" 
— these  were  the  themes,  which,  in  those  ages,  be- 
guiled and  led  captive  the  souls  of  men,  and  banished 
the  sound  of  the  Gospel  from  the  earth.  The 
degeneracy  of  these  fraternities  has  already  been 
noticed ;  and  it  brought  upon  them  the  full  weight  of 
Wiclif  's  tremendous  hostility.  But  while  he  detested 
their  abuses,  he  was  keenly  alive  to  the  efficacy  of 
their  system  ;  and  hence  it  was,  that  not  only  was  he, 
himself,  an  indefatigable  preacher  of  Gospel  truth, 
but  his  "  poor  priests,"  both  before  and  after  his  death, 
17* 


198  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

were  in  perpetual  activity  almost  throughout  the  king- 
dom. And  although  they  may  have  dropped  many 
a  rank  and  worthless  weed  into  the  soil,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  they,  likewise,  cast  abroad,  in  every 
direction,  that  good  seed,  which  after  a  long  wintry 
season,  sprung  up  into  the  glorious  harvest  of  our 
Reformation. 

Wiciif,  as  a  It  may,  with  propriety,  be  mentioned 
Parish  Priest,  here,  that  the  faithfulness,  the  zeal,  and 
the  spirit  of  charity,  'with  which  all  the  duties  of  a 
parochial  minister  were  discharged  by  Wiciif,  have 
given  occasion  to  the  conjecture,  that  he  may  have 
been  the  real  original  of  Chaucer's  celebrated  picture 
of  the  Village  Priest. 

"  A  good  man  there  wa«  of  religion, 
He  was  a  poor  parson  of  a  town, 
But  rich  he  was  of  holy  thought  and  work, 
He  was  a  learned  man,  also  a  clerk, 
That  Christ's  Gospel  truly  would  preach, 
His  parishioners  devoutly  would  he  teach. 
Benign  he  was,  and  wondrous  diligent, 
And  in  adversity  full  patient, 
And  such  a  one  he  was  proved  oft  sithes, 
For  loth  were  he  to  curse  for  hip  tithes, 
But  rather  would  he  give,  out  of  doubt. 
Unto  his  poor  parishioners  all  about, 
Both  of  his  offering  and  his  substance, 
He  could  in  little  have  a  suffisance. 
Wide  was  his  parish,  and  houses  far  asunder, 
But.  he  ne'er  left,  neither  for  rain  nor  thunder, 
In  sickness,  nor  in  mischief,  for  to  visit 
The  furthest  in  his  parish,  great  or  light, 
"Upon  his  feet,  and  in  his  hand  a  staff. 
This  noble  example  to  his  eheep  he  gave, 
That  first  he  wrought,  and  afterward  taught, 
Out  of  the  Gospel  he  the  words  caught. 
And  this  figure  he  added  thereunto, 
That  if  gold  rust,  what  shall  iron  do? 
For  if  a  priest  be  foul,  on  whom  we  trust, 
No  wonder  'tis  that  a  layman  should  rust. 
And  shame  it  is,  if  a  priest  take  keep, 
To  see  a  foul  shepherd,  and  a  clean  sheep. 
Well  ought  a  priest,  example  for  to  give 
By  his  cleanness,  how  his  sheep  should  live. 

"  He  set  not  his  benefice  to  hire, 
Nor  left  his  sheep  encumbered  in  the  mire, 
And  ran  to  London,  to  St.  Paul's, 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  199 

To  seek  himself  a  chantry  for  souls.* 
Nor  with  a  brotherhood  to  be  withold, 
But  dwelt  at  home,  and  kept  well  his  fold. 
So  that  the  wolf  made  them  not  miscarry ; 
He  was  a  shepherd,  and  not  a  mercenary. 
And  though  he  holy  were  and  virtuous, 
He  was  not  to  sinful  men  despiteous, 
Nor  of  his  speech  dangerous  nor  dign, 
But  in  his  teaching  discreet  and  benign. 
To  draw  folk  to  heaven  with  fairness, 
By  good  example,  this  was  his  business. 
But  if  he  knew  any  person  obstinate, 
Whether  he  were  of  high  or  low  estate, 
Him  would  he  reprove  sharply  for  the  nonce. 
A  better  priest  I  trow,  no  where  there  is, 
He  waited  after  no  pomp  nor  reverence, 
He  made  himself  no  spiced  conscience, 
But  Christ's  lore,  and  his  apostles  twelve 
He  taught,  but  first  he  followed  it  himself." 

If  the  above  be  really  a  picture  of  John  Wiclif,  it 
is  difficult  for  the  imagination  to  figure  to  itself  a 
more  interesting  spectacle  than  that  of  the  Reformer, 
— at  one  time  shaking  the  pillars  of  superstition,  and 
bursting  through  the  wall  which  enclosed  its  cham- 
bers of  imagery — and  at  another,  delivering  the  sin- 
cere milk  of  God's  Word  to  his  spiritual  children,  and 
standing  as  the  minister  of  peace  and  consolation  in 
the  abodes  of  poverty  and  ignorance.  At  all  events, 
it  is  refreshing  to  contemplate  a  picture  like  this,  in 
the  midst  of  the  general  declension  from  Christian 
integrity.  One  would  willingly  hope  that,  even  in 
those  days  of  degeneracy,  many  a  similar  example 
of  ministerial  zeal  and  faithfulness  might  still  be 
found  in  the  retired  hamlets  and  villages  of  our 
country.  If  any  one,  however,  is  desirous  of  looking 
upon  a  deplorable  contrast  to  Chaucer's  representa- 
tion, he  has  only  to  consult  Wiclif 's  Treatise — "How 

•  "ThusLangland,  in  Piers  Plowmen's  vision,  describes  a  priest: 


-"  Plained  he  to  the  bishop, 


That  his  parishes  were  poor,  since  the  pestilence  time  5 
To  have  a  license,  and  leave  at  London  to  dwell, 
To  sing  there  for  simony,  for  silver  is  sweet." 


200  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

Pin,,     ni  tv,*  tne  Office  of  Curates  is  ordained  of  God." 

rioture   oi   tne   TT  ..,      .  _     ,  ,  .  , 

cierey  from  He  will  there  find,  under  three-and- 
"jiow  thetno!'  ^ty  Distinct  heads,  the  multiplied  de- 
fice  of  Curates  Hnquencies  of  the  secular  clergy  of  this 
is  ordained  of  kingdom,  as  they  exhibited  themselves  to 
a  censor  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
language  of  this  tract  is  quite  as  uncompromising  as 
that  with  which  he  assailed  the  abuses  of  Mendicancy. 
"  The  Office  of  Curates,"  he  begins,  "  is  ordained  of 
God:  few  do  it  well,  and  many  full  evil;  therefoie 
test  we  their  defaults,  with  God's  help :"  and  then 
immediately  follows  the  catalogue  of  their  misdoings. 
Every  one  would  gladly  believe  that  the  picture  must 
be  overcharged  :  but  if  the  representation  does  not 
outrageously  exceed  the  truth,  the  clergy  of  that  age 
were,  not  merely  neglectful  of  their  sacred  obliga- 
tions,— they  were,  absolutely,  the  pests  of  society— 
"  angels  of  Satan  to  lead  men  to  hell."  Had  tney 
acted  under  a  direct  commission  from  the  Enemy  of 
man,  they  could  not  have  fulfilled  theit  charge  with 
more  dangerous  and  pernicious  fidelity.  They  set 
to  the  world  an  example  of  every  thing  which  an 
immortal  and  accountable  being  should  scrupulously 
avoid.  They  were,  many  of  them, — if  we  are  to  be- 
lieve their  accuser, — infamous  for  ostentation,  sen- 
suality, and  avarice.  Their  doctrine,  it  may  well  be 
imagined,  was  no  better  than  their  example.  "They 
taught  sinful  men  to  buy  hell  full  dear. — They  shut 
against  their  people  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and 
would  neither  go  in  themselves,  nor  suffer  other  men 
to  enter."  They  were  the  flatterers  and  the  parasites 
of  the  great,  whose  vices  they  encouraged  by  their 
own  base  and  servile  imitation.  They  were  buried 
in  all  tire  surfeitings  of  a  worldly  life,  "haunted 
taverns  out  of  measure,  and  stirred  up  laymen  to  ex- 
cess, idleness,  profane  swearing,  and  disgraceful 
brawls."  They  wasted  their  time  and  wealth  in 
gambling,  and  revelry,  went  about  the  streets  roar- 
ing and  outrageous,  and  "  sometimes  had  neither  eye 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  201 

nor  tongue,  nor  hand,  nor  foot  to  help  themselves,  for 
drunkenness."  They  even  gloried  in  that  which  was 
their  shame,  and  were  ambitious  of  winning,  by 
these  enormities,  a  reputation  for  "  nobleness,  cour- 
tesy, goodness,  freeness,  and  worthiness."  In  the 
midst  of  this  worse  than  pagan  desecration  of  them- 
selves, they  maintained  their  influence  and  authority 
by  an  impious  prostitution  of  the  power  of  the  keys, 
and  extorted,  by  the  terror  of  spiritual  censures,  the 
money  and  the  obedience  of  their  enslaved  congrega- 
tions.* In  some  instances,  they  entered  into  an  ac- 
cursed partnership  with  the  objects  of  their  secret 
jealously  and  hate,  the  itinerant  friars  and  pardon- 
ers.f  "  For,  when  there  cometh  a  pardoner  to  rich 

*  As  Chaucer's  plowmarusays — 

Christ's  people  they  proudly  curse 
With  broad  book,  and  braying  bell, 
To  put  pennies  in  their  purse, 
They  will  sell  both  heaven  and  hell. 
If  tbou  the  truth  of  them  will  tell, 
In  great  cursing  shalt  thou  fall. 

t  The  practices  of  these  pardoners  are  described  to  the  life  by  Chau- 
cer:— 

His  wallet  before  him  on  his  lap, 

Brimful  of  pardons  come  from  Rome  all  hot : — 

In  his  mail  he  had  a  pillowbeer, 

Which,  as  he  said,  was  our  lady's  veil ; 

He  said  he  had  a  gobbet  of  the  sail 

That  St.  Peter  had,  when  that  he  went 

Upon,  the  sea,  till  Jesus  Christ  him  hent4 

He  had  a  cross  of  latten  full  of  stones, 

And  in  a  glass  he  had  pig's  bones. 

But  with  these  relics,  when  he  found 

A  poor  parson  dwelling  in  upland, 

Upon  a  day  he  got  him  more  money, 

Than  that  parson  got  in  months  tway, 

And  thus,  with  feigned  nattering  and  japes, § 

He  made  the  parson  and  people  his  apes. 

But  truly  to  tell  at  the  last, 

He  was  in  church  a  noble  ecclesiast. 

Well  could  he  read  a  lesson  or  a  story, 

But  always  best  he  sung  an  offertory. 

Full  well  he  wist  when  that  song  was  sung 

He  must  preach  and  well  afile  his  tongue, 

To  win  silver  as  well  as  he  could, 

Therefore  he  sung  so  merrily  and  loud. 

*  Caught  §  Tricks. 


202  LIFE    OF    WICLIF. 

places,  with  stolen  bulls,  and  false  relics,  granting 
more  years  of  pardon  than  come  before  doomsday, 
for  gaining  worldly  wealth,  he  shall  be  received  of 
curates,  to  have  a  part  of  that  which  he  getteth." 
With  all  these  abominations  upon  their  heads,  they 
"  magnified  themselves  above  Christ,  both  God  and 
man ;  for  Christ  bade  his  enemies,  if  he  had  spoken 
evil,  to  bear  witness  of  the  evil :"  whereas  these 
ministers  of  Anti-Christ  defied  all  censures,  disclaim- 
ed all  penal  jurisdiction,  and  commanded  the  world 
to  follow  their  teaching,  whether  it  were  true  or  false. 
"  Ye  Curates," — exclaims  the  indignant  Reformer, — 
"See  these  heresies  and  blasphemies,  and  many 
more,  which  follow  from  your  wicked  life,  and  way- 
ward teachings.  Forsake  them  for  dread  of  hell,  and 
turn  to  good  life,  and  true  preaching  of  the  Gospel, 
and  ordinances  of  God,  as  Christ  and  his  Apostles 
did,  for  reward  of  heavenly  bliss."* 

It  should  be  observed,  that  this  tract  cannot  have 
been  written  until  after  the  crusade,  which  was  led 
by  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  in  support  of  Urban  VI., 
against  his  rival,  Clement  VII.,  as  appears  from  the 
notice  of  that  event,  which  occurs  in  the  sixteenth 
section.  It  may,  nevertheless,  with  perfect  propriety, 
be  introduced  here,  as  exhibiting  the  accumulated 
result  of  Wiclif 's  observation,  during  the  whole  pe- 
riod of  his  public  life.  The  picture,  therefore,  whe- 
ther exaggerated  or  not,  is,  at  least,  not  executed  by  a 
rash  and  youthful  hand,  impelled  by  the  first  ardour 
of  reforming  zeal.  It  is  one  of  the  latest  perform- 
ances of  his  mature  and  reflecting  a^e.  It  proves  that 
every  day  he  lived,  only  gave  additional  keenness  to 
his  perception  of  these  evils,  and  additional  intensity 
to  his  desire  for  their  correction,  And  even  if  charity 
should  be  allowed  to  approach  and  touch  the  canvass, 
— to  discharge  from  it  some  tints  of  its  fiery  colour- 
in^ — and  even  to  mitigate  the  vile  deformity  of  its 

*  The  tract  in  question  is  given,  in  a  compressed  form,  in  the  extracts 
from  WicJiPs  writings  above  advened  to,  p,  123 — 136. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  203 

outline, — enough  will  still  be  left  to  raise  the  aston- 
ishment of  later  and  better  times ;  enough  to  com- 
mand our  veneration  for  that  brave  spirit  which  went 
forth  to  a  conflict  with  such  tremendous  abuses. 

But  we  are  now  to  consider  that  mighty  Wiclirs  u^. 
undertaking,  which,  more  than  all  the  lation  of  the 
other  labours  of  Wiclif,  poured  a  blaze  ScriPtures- 
of  unwelcome  light  into  these  regions  of  darkness. 
For  ages  together,  the  mysterious  and  evil  Power, 
shadowed  forth  in  the  Apocalypse,  had  shown  itself 
armed  with  scales,  that  could  turn  back  the  point  of 
ridicule,  or  the  edge  of  invective,  or  the  assaults  of 
worldly  might.  But  to  unseal  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
was  to  let  loose  an  element,  in  the  midst  of  which  it 
was  doomed  to  sicken  and  wax  faint,  and  gradually 
to  loosen  the  grasp  with  which  it  had  well  nigh 
strangled  the  energies  of  the  human  mind.  And  this 
was  the  immortal  service  performed  for  his  country 
by  Wiclif,  when  he  put  forth  his  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  the  English  tongue.  <Et  is  impossible  to 
convey  to  Protestant  readers  a  more  just  conception 
of  the  importance  of  this  task,  than  by  producing  the 
words  in  which  it  is  mentioned  by  a  Catholic  histo- 
rian. "  There  was  another  weapon,"  says  Dr.  Lin- 
gard,  "  which  the  Rector  of  Lutterworth  wielded  with 
equal  address,  and  still  greater  efficacy.  In  proof  of 
his  doctrines  he  appealed  to  the  Scriptures,  and  thus 
made  his  disciples  judges  between  him  and  the 
Bishops.  Several  versions  of  the  sacred  writings  were 
even  then  extant :  but  they  were  confined  to  libraries, 
or  only  in  the  hands  of  persons  who  aspired  to  supe- 
rior sanctity.  Wiclif  made  a  new  translation,  multi- 
plied the  copies  with  the  aid  of  transcribers,  and  by 
his  poor  priests  recommended  it  to  the  perusal  of  their 
hearers.  In  their  hands  it  became  an  engine  of  won- 
derful  power.  Men  were  flattered  with  the  appeal  to 
their  private  judgment;  the  new  doctrines  insensibly 
acquired  partisans  and  protectors  in  the  higher  classes, 
who  alone  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of  letters ; 


204  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

a  spirit  of  inquiry  was  generated ;  and  the  seeds  were 
sown  of  that  religious  revolution  which,  in  little  more 
than  a  century,  astonished  and  convulsed  the  nations 
of  Europe."*  ... 

These  suggestions  of  Dr.  Lingard  are  nothing  more 
than  what  might  reasonably  be  expected  from  any 
conscientious  writer  on  the  Catholic  side  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  and  they  are  cited  here  purely  as  the  most  con- 
clusive of  all  acknowledgments,  that,  whatever  may 
be  the  merits  of  the  great  religious  revolution,  the 
labours  of  Wiclif  in  translating  the  Bible  were  pow- 
erfully instrumental  in  producing  it.  There  is,  how- 
ever, one  inaccuracy  in  this  extract  worthy  of  notice, 
because  its  tendency  is  to  lower,  in  some  degree,  our 
estimate  of  the  value  of  this  gigantic  work.  It  is  as- 
Notice  of  previ-  ser.led  that "  several  versions  of  the  sacred 
ous  versions  of  writings  were  even  then  extant;"  in  sup- 
parts  of  the  pOrt  of  which  assertion  the  writer  alleges 
the  authority  of  Sir  Thomas  More  :f  and 
the  impression  left  by  the  statement  is,  that  the  Eng- 
lish people  were,  at  that  time,  in  possession  of  some 
translation  of  every  portion  of  the  sacred  Volume. 
That  this  representation  is  not  correct,  seems  to  be 
fully  established  by  the  inquiries  of  Mr.  Baber  \\  from 
which  we  learn,  that  no  researches,  hitherto  made, 
have  discovered  any  attempt  towards  a  complete 
English  Version  of  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New 

*  Lingard,  vol.  iv.  p.  266,  267. 

t  "The  whole  Bible  was,  long  before  Wiclif's  days,  by  virtuous  and 
well  learned  men,  translated  into  the  English  tong,  and  by  good  and 
godly  people,  with  devotion  and  soberness  well  and  reverently  red." 
Sir  Thus.  More's  Dialogues,  iii.  14,  quoted  in  Ling.  vol.  iv.  p.  27,  note 


:en.se  in  which  it  is  to  be  understood. 

;  See  the  "  Historical  Account  of  the  Saxon  and  English  Versions  of 
the  Scriptures  previous  to  the  oj>ening  of  the  fifteenth  century."  prefixed 
by  Mr.  Baber  to  his  edition  of  Wiclif's  translation  of  the  New  Testament; 
in  which  will  he  found  the  most  complete  body  of  information  hitherto 
collected  relative  to  this  interesting  subject. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  205 

Testament  previous  to  the  undertaking  of  Wiclif. 
In  the  interval  between  the  seventh  and  eleventh 
centuries  inclusive,  paraphrases  and  versions  of  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  Bible,  undoubtedly,  appeared 
in  the  Saxon  tongue.  The  earliest  of  these  was  the 
work  of  the  monk  Ccedmon ;  which,  how-  effi(|mon 
ever,  has  no  pretensions  to  the  charac- 
ter of  a  translation.  It  is  merely  a  religious  poem, 
(the  most  ancient  specimen  of  Saxon  poetry)  the 
materials  of  which  are  taken  from  the  Scriptures.  It 
opens  with  the  fall  of  the  angels,  and  the  creation ; 
proceeds  through  tne  whole  series  of  events  related  in 
the  book  of  Genesis ;  and  comprehends  various  other 
portions  of  Scriptural  history.  This  achievement 
was  followed  by  literal  Saxon  versions  of  other  parts 
of  the  Holy  Writ,  undertaken  by  a  succession  of 
writers,  (among  whom  our  illustrious  Alfred ' 
Alfred  holds  an  honourable  place,)  con- 
cluding with  .ZElfric,  a  learned  and  pious  -^fric. 
Saxon  monk,  who  lived  towards  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century,  and  who  laid  before  his  countrymen,  in 
their  own  language,  considerable  portions  of  the  Old 
Testament  histories.*  Even  this  work,  however,  is 
very  far  from  a  complete  version.  In  many  parts  it 
is  rather  an  abridgement,  which  gives  merely  the 
substance  of  the  precepts  enforced,  and  the  facts 
recorded,  by  the  sacred  writers.  To  these,  indeed, 
may  be  added  a  few  manuscripts  of  the  Psalter  in 
Saxon  and  Latin,  of  uncertain  date,  but  which  may, 
probably  be  assigned  to  the  period  of  the  Conquest ; 
and  three  manuscripts  of  the  Gospels,  in  the  Anglo- 
Norman  dialect,  of  which  the  earliest  may  have 
been  composed  during  the  reign  of  the  Conqueror, 
and  the  other  two  somewhere  about  the  time  of 
Henry  II. 

It  is  obvious,  from  the  above  statement,  that  at- 

*  The  list  is  as  follows.  The  Pentateuch,  Joshua,  Judges,  some  part 
of  the  books  of  Kings,  Esther,  Job,  Judith,  and  the  two  books  of  the  Mac- 
cabeevS.  f«ee  Baber's  Hist.  Ace.  p.  Ixii.  Ixiii. 

18 


206  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

tempts  like  these,  even  if  executed  with  the  utmost 
fidelity  and  correctness,  being  in  an  obsolete  dialect, 
must  have  been  entirely  unserviceable  in  making  the 
people  of  England,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  ac- 
quainted with  the  contents  of  the  holy  Scriptures. 
It  will,  also,  be  found  that  subsequent  undertakings 
of  the  same  nature  had  very  imperfectly  supplied  the 
defect.  The  earliest  of  these  monuments,  after  the 
Saxon  times,  is  a  paraphrase  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts 
The  ormuium.  °f  lfte  Apostles,  entitled  "  Ormulum," 

(from  the  name  of  its  author,  Orme,  or 
Ormin)  written  in  imitation  of  Saxon  poetry,  without 
rhyme,  but  in  the  English  language,  in  its  very  in- 
fancy. Next  to  this  stands  a  curious  volume,  of 
Sowie-heie.  prodigious  size,  entitled*  Sowle-hele,  (or 

Soul's  health)  which  has  been  referred 
to  a  period  shortly  anterior  to  the  thirteenth  century. 
It  is  beautifully  written  on  vellum,  and  elegantly 
illuminated :  and  contains  a  metrical  paraphrase  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament.  The  object  of  the 
compiler  seems  to  have  been  to  form  a  complete  body 
of  legendary  and  scriptural  history  in  verse,  or  rather 
to  collect  into  one  view,  all  the  religious  poetry  he 
could  find.f  Apparently  coeval  with  this,  is  another 
version  of  a  similar  description,  comprising  a  large 
portion  of  Genesis  and  Exodus,  but  evidently  the 
work  of  another  hand,  and  composed  in  the  northern 
dialect  of  that  age.  In  the  same  dialect  is  a  rhymed 
version  of  the  Psalms,  which  has  been  referred  to  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  or  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  There  are  likewise  extant,  copies 
of  the  same  version  revised  and  considerably  im- 
proved4  It  is  not  till  somewhat  later  that  we  are 
to  look  for  any  thing  like  a  literal  translation  even 

*  MSS.  Bodl.  779. 

t  Wharton's  Hist.  ofEngl.  Poetry,  §  1,  cited  in  Baber's  Hist.  Ace.  p. 
Ixiv.  note  §. 

I  Mr.  Baber  has  furnished  us  with  the  translation  of  the  hundredth 
Psalm,  from  this  work,  both  in  its  original  and  its  improved  form.  As 
these  are  interesting  specimens  of  our  language  in  an  early  stage  of  its 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  207 

of  any  portion  of  the  Sacred  Writings.  At  that  pe- 
riod the  psalms  and  hymns  of  the  Church  were  trans- 
lated into  English  prose,  with  a  comment  to  each 
verse,  by  Richard  Rolle,  a  hermit  of  the  RoUe>  the  her. 
Order  of  St.  Augustine,  known  by  the  mit  'of  Ham- 
title  of  Richard  of  Hampole,  from  his  P°le- 
residence  in  a  nunnery  of  that  name,  near  Doncaster. 
His  prologue  to  what  Mr.  Baber  calls  this  versio 
princeps  will  furnish  a  good  specimen  of  his  English, 
which  will  be  found  almost  as  intelligible  as  that  of 
any  modern  work.  "  In  this  werke,"  he  says,  "  I 
selce  no  strange  Ynglys,  hot  lightest,  and  communest, 
and  swilk  that  is  most  like  unto  the  Latyne  ;  so  that 
thai  that  knowes  noht  the  Latyne,  be  the  Ynglys 

transition  towards  standard  English,  the  reader  may  not  be  displeased 
with  their  introduction  here. 

ORIGINAL  VERSION.— Corp.  Chr.  Coll.  Camb.  MS.  278. 

Mirthes  to  God  al  erthe  that  es, 

Serves  to  Lpverd  in  faints. 

In  go  yhe  ai  in  his  siht, 

In  gladnes  that  is  so  briht. 

Whites  that  loverd  god  is  he  thus ; 

He  us  made,  and  our  self  noht  us, 

His  folke  and  shep  of  his  fode. 

In  gos  his  yhates  that  are  gode ; 

In  schrift,  his  worches  belive, 

In  ympnes  to  him  ye  schrive. 

Heryhes  his  name  for  loverde  is  hende, 

In  all  his  merci  do  in  strende  and  strende. 

IMPROVED  VERSION.— Cott.  MS.  Vespas.  D.  vii. 

Mirthes  to  laverd  at  erthe  that  es, 

Serves  to  laverd  in  famen£s. 

Ingas  of  him  in  the  sight, 

In  gladeschip  bi  dai  and  night. 

Wite  ye  that  laverd  he  god  is  thus ; 

And  he  us  made,  and  ourself  noght  us, 

His  folke  and  schepe  of  his  fode. 

Ingas  his  yhates  thater  gode : 

In  schrift  his  porches  that  be 

In  ympnes  to  him  schrive  ye. 

Heryes  oft  him  name  swa  fre, 

For  that  laverd  soft  is  he. 

In  evermore  his  merci  esse ; 

And  in  strende  and  strende  his  sothneea. 


208  LIFE   OF  WTCLIF. 

may  come  to  many  Latyne  wordis.  In  the  transla- 
cione,  I  felogh  the  letter  als-mekille  as  I  may  ;  and 
thor  I  find  no  proper  Ynglys  I  felogh  the  wit  of  the 
wordis,  so  that  thai  that  thall  read  it,  them  thar  not 
dread  errynge.  In  expowning  I  felogh  holie  doc- 
tors. For  it  may  come  into  some  envious  mannes 
honde,  that  knowes  not  what  he  suld  say  at  will, 
that  I  wist  not  what  I  sayd,  and  so  do  harm  till 
him,  and  till  other."  Besides  this  translation,  the  her- 
mit achieved  various  poetical  compositions,  among 
which  are  a  version  of  the  seven  penitential  Psalms, 
a  paraphrase  of  some  portions  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
and  another,  on  the  Lord's  Prayer,  of  extreme 
prolixity.  About  the  same  time,  it  would  appear 
that  the  clergy  were  often  in  the  habit  of  appealing 
to  private  judgment  by  translating  for  the  use  of  their 
congregations  such  portions  of  Scripture  as  were 
more  prominently  introduced  into  the  services  of  the 
Churcn ;  and  to  this  pious  practice  we  owe  several 
other  versions  of  the  Psalter,  of  parts  of  the  Gospel 
of  St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke,  and  of  the  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  usually  accompanied  with  a  devotional  com- 
mentary; and  among  the  MSS.  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum is  a  translation,  in  the  northern  dialect,  of  the 
Dominical  Gospels  for  the  year,  together  with  an 
exposition  of  the  whole.* 

From  the  above  brief  survey,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
task  of  presenting  England  with  a  complete  version 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  still  remained  open 
for  Wiclif.  The  only  circumstance  which  can  throw 
the  faintest  shade  of  suspicion  over  his  claim  to  the 
honour  of  this  enterprise,  is  the  existence  of  a  little 
work,  by  the  title  of  Elucidarium  Biblio- 
awiommTor"'"1/  °r>  "Prologue  to  the  complete 
Prologue,  &c.  Version  of  the  Bible."  There  are  two 
of Wiclif.W°rk  i?01111^8  on  which  this  tract  has  been 
supposed  to  impeach  the  title  of  the  Re- 

*  They  who  are  desirous  of  more  full  information  on  the  subject,  must 
eonsnlt  my  authority,  Mr.  Baber,  Hist  or.  Ace.  p.  Ivii — Ixviii. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  209 

former  to  the  distinction  in  question.  The  first  is, 
that  the  Bodleian  Library  has  a  Manuscript  of  this 
Book,  to  which  is  annexed  the  date  of  MCCC....VIIT. 
And  if  this  date  be  correct,  as  it  stands,  of  course 
there  is  an  end  of  Wiclif 's  title  to  the  glory  of  !First 
Translator.  This  objection,  however,  may  be  dis- 
posed of  by  a  moment's  inspection  of  the  MS.;  from 
which  it  is  clear,  that  the  interval  between  the  two 
Roman  numerals,  (C  and  V,)  was  originally  occupied 
by  another  numeral,  of  which  there  has  been  a  mani- 
fest erasure  :  and  if,  as  is  most  probable,  that  numeral 
was  a  C,  the  date  of  the  manuscript,  instead  of  1308, 
will  be  1408,  a  period  later  than  the  death  of  Wiclif 
by  four-and-twenty  years.  But,  again,  the  Prologue 
above  mentioned,  has,  by  many  writers,  been  as- 
cribed to  Wiclif  himself.  Now,  most  unquestionably, 
the  sentiments  and  opinions  it  contains,  are  in  perfect 
harmony  with  those  of  the  Proto-Reformer;  and  the 
title-page  of  the  printed  edition  of  1550,  accordingly, 
speaks  of  if;  expressly,  as  "  written  about  200  years 
before  by  John  Wyckliffe."*  If  this  were  correct,  the 
fact  would,  undoubtedly,  be  fatal  to  the  notion,  that 
his  was  the  first  complete  Version  of  the  Bible ;  for  the 
Author,  in  the  course  of  his  work,  not  only  adverts  to 
his  own  labours  as  a  translator,  but  alludes  to  another 
translation  already  in  existence.  But,  that  Wiclif 
was  not  the  author,  is  irresistibly  established  by 
the  internal  evidence  of  the  work  itself.  In  the  first 
place,  it  appeals,  in  the  tenth  chapter,  to  the  authority 
of  G-erson,  (one  of  the  most  illustrious  divines  of  that 
age)  by  the  name  of  Parisiensis  ;f  and,  as  Gerson 

*  The  title  is  as  follows :  "  The  true  Copye  of  a  Prologue  wrytten  about 
two  C  yeeres  past  by  John  Wyckliffe,  (as  may  be  justly  gathered  bi  thaL 
that  John  Bale  hath  written  of  him,  in  his  boke,  entitled  the  summarie  of 
famouse  writers  of  the  He  of  Great  Britan,)  the  original  whereof  is  founde 
written  in  an  Old  English  B  ble,  bitwixt  the  Okie  Testament,  and  the 
Newe.  Which  Bible  remaynith  now  in  the  Kyng  his  Majesties  Cham- 
ber. Imprinted  at  London  by  Robert  Crowley,  dwellynge  in  Elie  rents 
in  Holburn.  Anno  Do.  MDL." 

t  John  Charlier  Gerson  was  styled  Parisiensis,  in  consequence  of  his 
being  chancellor  and  canon  of  some  church  in  Paris.  His  piety  and  eru- 

IS* 


210  LIFE    OF   WICLIF, 

was  not  born  till  1363,  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  he 
could  have  become  an  author  of  celebrity  till  after  the 
death  of  Wiclif,  which  happened  in  1384.  Again,  in 
the  thirteenth  chapter,  the  writer  complains  bitterly 
of  the  impediments  to  the  prosecution  of  theology, 
occasioned  by  a  regulation  at  Oxford,  which  prohibited 
the  study  of  divinity  till  two  years  after  commencing 
in  arts,  thus  deferring  it  for  nine  or  ten  years  from 
the  time  of  entering  the  University.  It  is  true  that 
this  regulation  was  as  old  as  the  year  1251 ;  but  it 
had  long  fallen  into  utter  desuetude  and  oblivion, 
and  was  not  revived  till  1387,  three  years  after  the 
decease  of  Wiclif.  Lastly,  the  same  thirteenth 
chapter  (in  which  the  author  adverts  to  some  un- 
speakable depravities,  said  to  be  notoriously  prevalent 
among  ecclesiastics)  contains,  towards  the  end  of  it, 
a  manifest  allusion  to  the  articles,  exhibited  to  the 
Parliament,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  Richard  II., 
with  a  view  to  the  reformation  of  the  Church ;  and 
this  seems  to  fix  the  date  of  the  composition,  as  sub- 
sequent to  the  year  1395,  in  which  that  Parliament 
was  holden.* 

dition,  likewise,  acquired  for  him  the  title  of  Evangelical,  and  Most 
Christian  Doctor. 

*  See  Fox,  p.  577,  578.  Ed.  1684,  where  these  articles,  or  conclusions, 
are  printed  at  length.  They  show  that  the  eyes  of  men  were  then  very 
widely  open  indeed  to  the  corruptions  of  the  clergy !  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  "  Prologue,"  mentioned  above.  It  speaks  of  the  vices  of  the 
dignified  ecclesiastics  in  language,  to  say  the  least,  quite  as  unceremonious 
as  that  of  Wiclif.  For  instance,  in  his  tenth  chapter,  the  writer  labours 
after  all  manner  of  "base  comparisons,"  wherewith  to  illustrate  the  prof- 
ligacy and  indolence  of  the  prelates.  He  produces  divers  competent  argu- 
ments and  authorities,  to  prove  that  an  evil  prelate  is  a  roaring  lion — a 
wolf  ravishing  prey — an  unclean  dog — a  crowe,  or  a  raven,— (for  the 
blackness  of  his  sinnis) — salt  without  savour,  not  profitable  for  any  thing 
— a  hog  (for  his  gluttony.)— He  is,  moreover,  a  capon — "  for,  as  a  capon 
croweth  not,  even  so,  an  evil  prelate  croweth  not  in  preaching.  Also,  as 
a  capon  maketh  fat  himself,  so  an  evil  prelate  maketh  fat  himself."  Fur- 
thermore, an  evil  prelate  is  a  chimera,  "  that  hath  a  part  of  each  beast :" 
and,  again,  he  is  nothing  better  than  an  idol — the  mere  semblance  of  a 
living  prelate :  and  of  such  idols  there  be  six  several  sorts ;  that  is,  idols  of 
clay,  of  wood,  of  brass,  of  stone,  of  silver,  and  of  gold.  The  fleshy  and  sensual 
prelate  is  an  idol  of  clay— the  witless  and  ignorant  prelate  is  a  figure  of 
wood—  "simulacrisof  brass  ben  they  that  have  only  worldly  eloquence; 
for  why —brass  giveth  a  great  sowne. ' '  Some  prelates  are  wholly  broken 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  211 

From  all  this  it  seems,  beyond  reason-  No  complete 
able  controversy,  that  Wiclif  had  no  version  before 
predecessor  in  his  vast  undertaking.  It  Wiclif'8- 
only  remains,  therefore,  to  be  observed,  that  some 
writers  have  gravely  questioned  whether  Wiclif  had 
any  hand  whatever  in  the  great  work  which  now 
bears  his  name.  Of  all  "historic  doubts,"  this,  per- 
haps, is  the  most  baseless.  The  language  of  Knygh- 
ton  alone  is  sufficient  to  overthrow  it.  "Christ," 
says  the  zealous  Romanist,  "  committed  the  Gospel 
to  the  clergy  and  doctors  of  the  Church,  that  they 
might  minister  it  to  the  laity,  and  weaker  persons, 
according  to  the  exigency  of  times,  and  the  wants  of 
men.  But  this  Master  John  Wiclif  translated  it  out 
of  Latin  into  English,  and,  by  that  means,  laid  it 
more  open  to  the  laity,  and  to  women,  who  could 
read,  than  it  used  to  be  to  the  most  learned  of  the 
clergy,  and  those  of  them  who  had  the  best  understand- 
ing :  and  so  the  Gospel  pearl  is  cast  abroad,  and 
trodden  under  foot  of  swine ;  and  that,  which  used  to 
be  precious  to  both  clergy  and  laity,  is  made,  as  it 
were,  the  common  jest  of  both;  and  the  jewel  of  the 
Church  is  turned  into  the  sport  of  the  people ;  and 
what  was  before  the.  chief  talent  of  the  clergy  and 
doctors  of  the  Church,  is  made  for  ever  common  to  the 
laity."*  To  this  testimony  may  be  added  the  words  of 
Wiclif  himself,  who,  in  one  of  his  homilies,!  mentions 
the  severity  and  persecution  he  had  endured,  because 
he  had  enabled  the  people  to  read  the  word  of  God  in 

off  from  "  rightfulness  and  virtue :"  they  have  nothing  hut  mere  "tempo- 
ral  strength,"  and  are  not  better  than  statues,  carved  out  of  stone; — far 
different  from  the  stone  which  was  set  in  the  head  of  the  corner,  these  are 
only- stones  "  of  hurtyng  and  of  sclander."  The  images  of  silver  be  they 
who  are  made  by  money,  and  who  say,  what  will  ye  give  us  that  we  should 
betray  Christ  unto  you  !  Lastly — the  image  of  gold  is  the  prelate  who  is 
advanced  only  for  the  sake  of  worldly  pomp  and  nobility  ;  for  gold  is  the 
emblem  of  nobility,  and  therefore  it  is  that  the  image  set  up  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar was  of  gold.  These  specimens  of  coarse  satire  are  to  be  found 
from  the  seventh  to  the  eleventh  page  of  the  tenth  chapter,  in  the  edit,  of 
1550.  The  volume  itself  h  as  no  pag  i  ng. 

*  Knighton,  De  Eventibus  Angliae,  col.  2644.  quoted  by  Lewis,  p.  83, 84. 

t  Horn,  on  Matt  xi.  23.    See  Baber,  Hist.  Ace.  p.  brix. 


212  LIFE    OF   W1CLIF. 

their  own  tongue;  and  the  fact,  that  in  no  list  of  his 
works  that  has  yet  appeared,  has  his  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  ever  been  omitted.* 

It  is  to  be  always  remembered,  that  Wiclif  's  trans- 
lation was  made  entirely  from  the  Latin  text,  the  only 
one  at  that  time  in  use.  It  may  justly  be  regarded 
as  a  glorious  monument,  not  only  of  religion,  but  of 
letters.  It  exhibits  our  language  in  the  most  perfect 
form  which  it  had  then  attained,  and  might,  alone, 
have  been  sufficient  to  save  it  from  relapsing  into 
barbarism.  The  inestimable  benefits  conferred  on 
the  English  tongue  by  our  present  version,  are  ac- 
knowledged by  all  who  have  entered  deeply  into  the 
spirit  of  our  national  literature :  and  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  labours  of  the  Reformer  were 
calculated  to  do  a  similar  service  to  our  genuine  An- 
glo-Norman dialect,  two  centuries  earlier.  It  is  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Turner,  who  has  diligently  studied 
the  orifi-nes  of  our  literature,  that  Wiclif 's  ordinary 
style  is  less  perspicuous  and  cultivated  than  that  of 
Rolle,  who  lived  and  wrote  many  years  earlier. 
Whether  this  is  to  be  ascribed  to  his  recluse  colle- 
giate life,  to  the  cramping  influence  of  his  scholastic 
studies,  or  to  some  defect  in  fluency  and  facility  of 
thought,  the  historian  does  not  venture  to  determine  ; 
but  he  hesitates  not  to  affirm,  that  his  poslils,  in  which 
familiarity  and  plainness  were  most  to  be  expected, 
are  decidedly  inferior,  in  clearness  and  felicity  of  ex- 
pression, to  the  composition  of  the  Hermit,  and  even 
to  those  of  some  among  the  contemporaries  of  Wic- 
lif.f  That  his  style  may  have  been  somewhat  dark- 
ened and  confused,  by  his  familiarity  with  the  bar- 
barous jargon  of  the  schools  may  easily  be  imagined; 
and  it  must  further  be  recollected,  that  his  labours 
were  so  incessant,  and  his  works  so  numerous,  that 
he  probably  poured  out  the  wealth  of  his  mind  with 
little  habitual  attention  to  the  graces  of  composition, 

*  Baber,  Hist.  Ace.  p.  Ixix. 

t  Turner,  Hist,  of  Eng.  voL  it  p.  583. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  213 

or  the  lucidness  of  arrangement.  Thomas  Aquinas, 
indeed,  is  said  to  have  "  the  rare  merit  of  com- 
bining great  perspicuity  and  purity  of  expression, 
with  all  the  refined  distinctions  and  speculations  of 
the  schoolmen ;"  while  Wiclif,  like  Peter  Lombard 
and  Duns  Scotus,  is  neither  classical  (in  the  humblest 
sense  of  that  word)  in  his  Latin  style,  nor  always 
distinct  or  vigorous  in  his  English  elocution.  This 
remark  is  more  or  less  applicable  to  all  his  works, 
except  the  version  of  the  Scriptures ;  and  there,  Mr. 
Turner  observes,  "  the  unrivalled  combination  of 
force,  simplicity,  dignity,  and  feeling  in  the  original, 
compel  his  old  English,  as  they  seem  to  compel  every 
other  language  into  which  it  is  translated,  to  be  clear, 
interesting,  and  energetic."4 

It  is  scarcely  to  be  imagined,  that  in  the  comple- 
tion of  his  task,  Wiclif  disdained  to  receive  such  as- 
sistance as  he  could  procure.  The  labour  must  have 
been  such  as  to  overpower  almost  any  single-handed 

*  "  There  is  something,"  says  Mr.  Turner,  "  remarkable  in  the  com- 
position of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures,  that  although,  in  every 
language,  they  are  the  easiest  book  to  a  learner,  they  are  yet  dignified, 
interesting,  and  impressive.  The  Pentateuch,  the  Psalms,  and  the  Gos- 
pels, unite  in  a  singular  degree,  simplicity  and  perspicuity,  with  force, 
energy,  and  pathos.  I  cannot  satisfy  myself  what  are  the  literary  pecu- 
liarities—the felicities  of  language,— which  make  them  so  universally 
comprehensible,  and  yet  avoid  insipidity,  feebleness,  and  tedium ;  which 
display,  so  often,  such  genuine  eloquence  and  majesty ;  and  yet  are  nei- 
ther affected  nor  elaborate,  nor,  in  general,  above  the  understanding  of 
the  commonest  reader."  Turner,  Histt  of  Eng.  vol.  ii.  p.  561,  note  8. 

The  extraordinary  combination  of  excellence,  which  is  here  most 
justly  described  by  Mr.  Turner,  may  surely  be  regarded  as  one  depart- 
ment of  that  vast  apparatus  of  evidence,  from  which  we  conclude  that 
the  authors  of  Scripture  were  under  the  influence, and  control  of  the 
Spirit  of  Truth.  To  that  Spirit  was  distinctly  known  "  what  is  in 


take  captive  the  hearts  and  the  capacities  both  of  the  simple  and  the 
wise.  The  "  literary  peculiarities,"  by  which  this  marvellous  result  has 
been  accomplished,  may,  indeed,  lie  beyond  the  depth  of  human  investi- 
gation. It  may  here  be  truly  said,  that  the  wind  bloweth  even  as  it 
listeth.  We  hear  the  sound  thereof,  but  no  man  can  tell  whence  it 
cometh  or  whither  it  goeth ! 

A  specimen  or  two  of  WicliPs  Translation  will  be  found  in  the  Ap. 
pendix. 


214  LIFE   OF   WICL1F. 

strength,  unless  it  were  exclusively  devoted  to  the 
work,  instead  of  being  divided  by  a  vast  variety  of 
other  engagements  and  undertakings.  That  he  re- 
ceived some  aid  seems  highly  probable,  from  an  inti- 
mation which  is  to  be  found  in  one  of  the  manuscript 
copies  of  his  Bible,  at  the  end  of  a  portion  of  the 
Book  of  Baruch ;  where  are  written  the  following 
somewhat  obscure  words — explicit  translationem  Nico- 
lay  de  Herford.*  This  remarkable  notice,  we  are 
told,  is  subscribed  by  a  different  hand,  and  in  less  du- 
rable ink,  than  that  employed  by  the  transcriber  of 
the  MS.,  and  may  probably  have  been  done  by  some 
one  who  had  sufficient  authority  for  his  assertion. 
To  what  extent  Wiclif  was  assisted  in  his  great 
work,  it  is  now  quite  impossible  to  ascertain.  There 
has,  however,  descended  to  us  nothing  which  renders 
it  doubtful,  that  the  whole  was  completed  under  his 
superintendence  and  revision,  and  put  forth  on  his 
responsibility, — or  that  the  substantial  and  almost 
undivided  honours  of  the  enterprise  are,  righteously, 
his  own. 

The  manuscripts  of  this  version  are,  to  this  day, 
exceedingly  numerous.  They  are  to  be  found,  not 
only  in  the  great  public  libraries  of  the  empire,!  but 
even  in  the  collections  of  private  individuals.  We 
may  readily  judge  of  the  activity  and  eagerness  with 
which  they  were  originally  circulated,  when  we  find 
that  such  a  multitude  of  copies  have  still  survived 
the  exterminating  zeal  of  Papal  inquisitors.  That 
the  appearance  of  such  a  work  occasioned,  among 

*  Baber,  Hist.  Ace.  p.  Ixix. 

t  The  British  Museum,  Lambeth,  Sion  College,  the  University  libra- 
ries, particular  colleges,  and  some  cathedrals.  Some  few  of  these  MSS. 
differ  so  materially  from  the  rest,  that  we  are  led  to  believe  that  there 
must  have  been  two  distinct  translations  of  Scripture.  Some  passages 
have  no  other  correspondence  except  that  which  arises  from  the  cir- 
cumstance of  their  having  been  rendered  from  one  common  original, 
the  Latin  Vulgate.  In  general,  however,  the  resemblance  is  such  as  to 
leave  no  doubt  that  the  earlier  translation  must  have  been  consulted'by 
the  author  of  the  later.  Baber,  Hist.  Ace.  p.  Ixix.  <fcc.  where  the  reader 
may  find  some  specimens  of  their  nearest  agreement,  and  their  most 
remarkable  variation. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  215 

the  Romanists,  the  deepest  alarm,  and  the  hottest 
indignation,  is  perfectly  notorious.  The  influx  of 
light  naturally  produced  consternation  among  those 
whose  element  was  darkness.*  Wiclif  himself  was 
represented  as  little  hetter  than  an  audacious  violator, 
whose  hand  spared  not  to  rend  the  veil  which  had 
for  ages  concealed  the  mysterious  sanctity  of  truth 
from  the  gaze  of  the  profane  multitude.  His  work 
was  denounced  and  proscribed,  as  tainted  almost  with 
the  guilt  of  sacrilege.  The  vehemence  of  displeasure 
which  it  excited  among  the  hierarchy  will  sufficiently 
appear  from  the  fact,  that,  some  ten  years  after  this 
period,  a  Bill  was  actually  brought  into  the  House  of 
Lords,  to  forbid  the  perusal:  of  the  English  Bible  by 
the  laity.  This  measure,  indeed,  was  manfully  op- 
posed by  John  of  Gaunt,  who  rose  up  in  his  place, 
and  said,  that  "  the  people  of  England  would  not  be 
the  dregs  of  all  men,  seeing  all  nations  besides  them 
had  the  Scriptures  in  their  own  tongue."!  But  the 
seal  was,  nevertheless,  afterwards  affixed  to  the  con- 
demnation of  all  such  attempts,  by  a  constitution  of 
Archbishop  Arundel,  which  begins  by  declaring  that, 
"  it  is  a  perilous  thing,  as  Saint.  Jerome  testifieth,  to 
translate  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture  from  one  idiom 
into  another ;  since  it  is  no'  easy  matter  to  retain  in 
every  version  an  identity  of  sense;  and  the  same 
blessed  Jerome,  even  though  he  were  inspired,  con- 
fesseth  that  herein  he  had,  himself,  been  frequently 
mistaken."  It  was,  therefore,  enacted  and  ordained, 
that,  "  thenceforth,  no  one  should  translate  any  text 
of  sacred  Scripture,  by  his  own  authority,  into  the 
English  or  any  other  tongue,  in  the  way  of  book, 
tract,  or  treatise  ;  and  that  no  publication  of  this  sort, 
composed  in  the  time  of  John  Wiclif,  or  since,  or 
thereafter  to  be  composed,  should  be  read,  either  in 
part  or  in  whole,  either  in  public  or  in  private,  under 
the  pain  of  the  greater  excommunication,  until  such 

*  Trepidant  immisso  lumine  Manes, 
t  Lewis,  84. 


216  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

translation  should  be  approved  by  the  diocesan  of  the 
place ;  or,  if  the  matter  should  require  it,  by  a  pro- 
vincial council :  every  one  who  should  act  in  contra- 
diction to  this  order,  to  be  punished  as  an  abettor  of 
heresy,  and  error."*  Such  was  the  decree  of  the  con- 
vocation held  at  St.  Paul's  in  1408.  It  evidently 
amounted  to  an  utter  prohibition  to  translate,  or  to 
peruse  translations  ;  for  it  is  easy  to  conjecture  what, 
in  those  times,  would  be  the  fate  of  all  applications 
for  that  purpose,  either  to  diocesan  or  council !  The 
persecutions  which  followed  this  edict  are  well  known 
to  all,  and  amply  attested  by  the  various  episcopal 
registers.  Ruinous  fines,  cruel  imprisonment,  and 
martyrdom  at  the  stake,  were  the  portion  of  multi- 
tudes, who  ventured  to  consult  for  themselves  the 
charter  for  their  salvation. 

The  objections  urged  at  that  day,  and  still  more 
confidently  in  subsequent  ages,  by  the  Romish  Church, 
Question  of  ap-  to  tne  liberty  of  free  access  to  the  Scrip- 
peal  to  private  tures,  are  now  tolerably  well  known  to 
every  Protestant ;  and  it  may  very  safely 
be  conceded,  that  there  is  about  them,  at  first  sight, 
an  air  of  plausibility,  which  may  well  render  them 
dangerous  and  embarrassing  to  many  an  honest  mind. 
It  is  insisted,  that  the  sanctity  of  the  Divine  Oracles 
is  tarnished  by  the  rash  curiosity  of  ignorant  men ; 
that  the  Word  of  God,  when  cited  by  all  parties, 
either  for  refutation,  or  defence,  is  degraded  into  an 
implement  of  unhallowed  warfare;  that  the  appeal 
to  private  judgment  engenders  a  spirit  of  arrogance, 
a  contempt  for  authority,  and  a  lust  for  perpetual  in- 
novation; that  its  tendency  is  to  break  down  the 
solid  unity  of  the  Faith,  and  to  shiver  it  into  frag- 
ments ;  to  stretch  over  the  Church  "  the  line  of  con- 
fusion, and  the  stones  of  emptiness"  and  desolation. 
And  by  those  writers  who  have  lived  since  the  period 
of  the  Reformation,  it  has  been  broadly  asserted,  that 

'  "Wilkins's  Concilia,  vol.  iii.  p.  317.  Constit.  vii.  Archb.  ArundeL 
140a 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  217 

the  innumerable  swarm  of  sects  wnich  have  sprung 
up  under  this  system,  are  to  be  regarded  as  a  plague, 
wherewith  the  displeasure  of  Heaven  hath  manifested 
itself  against  this  insane  presumption.  The  answer 
to  all  this,  must,  of  course,  be  liow  perfectly  familiar 
to  every  intelligent  Protestant.  The  members  of  any 
reformed  community  will  always  be  prepared  to  reply, 
that  apparent  and  external  unity  is  much  too  dearly 
purchased  by  a  general  sacrifice  of  private  judgment; 
that  schism  itself  is  a  less  evil  than  a  uniformity  of 
error  and  corruption ;  and  that  no  multiplication  of 
divisions  could  be  so  pernicious,  as  the-  universal 
prostration  of  intellect  and  conscience  before  the  au- 
thority of  an  uninspired  tribunal.  Such  is  the  point 
of  view  under  which  the  subject  unavoidably  presents 
itself  to  every  tolerably  well-informed  understanding 
at  the  present  day.  To  the  mind  of  Wiclif,  or  any 
independent  thinker  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the 
question  would  naturally  exhibit  itself  in  a  much 
more  simple  light.  At  that  time  it  was  hardly  to  be' 
expected  that  any  human  sagacity  should  anticipate 
all  the  consequences  of  an  unrestrained  resort  to  the 
Sacred  Text,  and  of  free  exercise  of  individual  judg- 
ment as  to  the  sense  of  it.  In  the  primitive  ages',- 
indeed,  the  Scriptures  were  not  locked  up  in  a  foreign 
tongue ;  and  it  may  be  said,  that  the  early  history  of 
the  Church  is  accordingly  found  to  oppress  the  in- 
quirer with  a  bewildering  catalogue  of  heresies.  But, 
then,  the  controversies  of  those  times,  it  could  not 
fail  to  be  remarked,  were  chiefly  confined  to  the  re- 
gions of  metaphysical  speculation.  The  questions 
then  agitated,  had,  most  of  them,  no  very  intelligible 
reference  to  Christian  practice ;  and  they  were,  more- 
over, almost  wholly  unmixed  with  considerations, 
which  involved  the  grounds  of  civil  right,  and  secular 
interest.  The  Reformer  of  the  middle  ages,  there- 
fore, could  hardly  be  expected  to  foresee  the  full  ex- 
tent of  the  price  which  Christian  Europe  would  have 
to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  searching  the  Scriptures 
19 


218  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

without  any  reference  to  the  authority  of  an  infallible 
guide.  With  him,  the  "  one  thing  needful"  would 
be  the  liberty  of  comparing  the  practice  of  the  Church 
with  the  text  of  the  Holy  Writings,  which  formed  , 
her  charter.  In  his  mind,  the  reasonableness  of  an 
appeal  to  the  "  Law  and  the  Testimony,"  could  not 
be  embarrassed  with  the  misgivings  and  apprehen- 
sions with  which  the  question  has  subsequently  been 
perplexed,  in  consequence  of  the  endless  variety  of 
systems  and  opinions,  engendered  by  the  almost  un- 
fettered license  of  interpretation.  These  were  dif- 
ficulties and  objections  which  never,  probably,  occur- 
red to  him,  and  against  which  he  was  not  called  upon 
to  provide  any  vindication.  He,  accordingly,  defends 
the  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  simply 
fence  "of  the  on  fhe  ground  that  they  must  have  been 
Translation  of  designed  for  the  guidance  and  instruction 

the   Scriptures.    of  &n    Christian    meD)   of  every   degre6j 

without  exception.  They  who  called  it  heresy,  to 
speak  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  English,  must  be 
prepared,  he  affirms,  to  "  condemn  the  Holy  Ghost, 
that  gave  it  in  tongues  to  the  Apostles  of  Christ,  to 
speak  the  Word  of  God  in  all  languages  that  were 
ordained  of  God  under  heaven."*  To  the  complaint, 
— that  to  open  the  Bible  to  all,  was,  in  effect,  to  set 
aside  the  office,  and  to  supplant  the  authority  of  those 
who  were  appointed  to  teach  its  doctrines  to  the  peo- 
ple,— he  replied,  that  "  those  heretics  are  not  to  be 
heard,  who  fancy  that  secular  men  ought  not  to  know 
the  law  of  God,  but  that  it  is  sufficient  for  them  to 
know  what  the  priests  and  prelates  tell  them  by  word 
of  mouth :  for  Scripture  is  the  faith  of  the  Churchy 
and  the  more  it  is  known,  in  an  orthodox  sense,  the 
better.  Therefore,  as  secular  men  ought  to  know 
the  faith,  so  it  is  to  be  taught  them  in  whatever  lan- 
guage is  best  known  to  them.  Besides,  since  the  truth 
of  the  faith  is  clearer  and  more  exact  in  the  Scripture 

*  Wiclif  a  Wicket. 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  219 

than  the  priests  know  how  to  express  it,  (seeing,  if 
one  may  say  so,  that  there  are  many  prelates  who  are 
too  ignorant  of  Scripture)  and  others  conceal  points 
of  Scripture,  such,  for  instance,  as  declare  for  the 
humility  and  poverty  of  the  clergy, — and  that  there 
are  many  such  defects  in  the  verbal  instructions  of 
priests, — it  seems  useful  that  the  faithful  should, 
themselves,  search  out,  or  discover,  the  sense  of  the 
faith,  by  having  the  Scriptures  in  a  language  which 

they  know  and  understand He  who  hinders 

this,  or  murmurs  against  it,  does  his  endeavour  that 
the  people  should  continue  in  a  damnable  and  unbe- 
lieving state.  The  laws,  therefore,  which  the  prelates 
make,  are  not  to  be  received  as  matters  of  faith ;  nor 
are  we  to  believe  their  words  or  discourses,  any  fur- 
ther, or  otherwise,  than  they  are  founded  on  the 
Scripture ;  since,  according  to  the  constant  doctrine 
of  Augustine,*  the  Scripture  is  all  the  truth.  There- 
fore this  translation  of  the  Scripture  would  do  this 
good,  that  it  would  render  priests  and  prelates  unsus- 
pected, as  to  the  words  which  they  explain."!  Fur- 
ther : — "  Prelates,  as  the  Pope,  and  friars,  and  other 
means,  may  prove  defective :  accordingly  Christ  and 
his  Apostles  converted  the  world  by  making  known 
to  them  the  truths  of  Scripture  in  a  language  fami- 
liar to  the  people ;  and  for  this  purpose  the  Holy 
Spirit  gave  them  the  knowledge  of  all  tongues. 
Why,  then,  should  not  the  disciples  of  Christ,  at  the 
present  day,  take  freely  from  the  same  loaf,  and  dis- 
tribute to  the  people  ?  .  .  .  .  Besides,  according  to  the 
faith  which  the  apostle  teaches,  all  Christians  must 
stand  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  and  be  an- 
swerable to  him  for  all  the  goods  wherewith  he  has 
entrusted  them.  It  is,  therefore,  necessary  that  all 
the  faithful  should  know  these  goods,  and  the  use  of 
them ;  for  an  answer  by  prelate  or  attorney  will  not  then 
avail,  but  every  one  must  then  answer  in  his  own  person. 

*  Epist.  ad  Volusianum. 

t  Speculum  Secularium  Dominorum.    Quoted  by  Lewis,  p.  86. 


£20  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

Since,  then,  God,  has  given  to  both  clergy  and  laity 
the  knowledge  of  the  faith,  to  this  end,  that  they  may 
teach  it  the  more  plainly,  and  may  faithfully  work  by 
it,  it  is  plain  that  God,  in  the  day  of  judgment,  will 
require  a  true  account  of  the  use  of  these  goods,  how 
they  have  been  put  out  to  usury."* 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  vindication  utterly  discards 
the  notion,  that  there  can  be  any  authority  in  matters 
of  faith,  co-ordinate  with  that  of  the  Bible.  The 
traditions  of  the  Church,  the  decrees  of  bishops, 
Popes,  or  councils,  all  are  here  thrust  down  to  a  rank 
immeasurably  below  the  eminence  of  the  inspired 
writings.  The  Scripture  alone  is  truth.  The  Scrip- 
ture alone  is  the  faith  of  the  Church ;  these  are  the 
grand  and  solid  maxims  upon  which,  as  upon  the 
eternal  rock,  Wiclif  built  up  the  defence  of  this  great 
undertaking,  and,  indeed,  the  whole  fabric  of  his 
scheme  of  reformation.  We  have  here  the  vigorous 
germ  of  Protestantism ;  cast  by  him  with  a  bold  hand, 
into  the  generous  soil  of  his  country,  there  to  lie  for 
a  long  and  tempestuous  period,  to  all  appearance  dor- 
mant and  powerless,  till  the  season  should  arrive  for 
its  starting  into  life.  Another  important  merit  of 
his  Vindication,  is  the  assault  it  makes  on  that  re- 
fuge of  lies,  which  the  corrupt  and  superstitious 
heart  of  man  hath  made  so  strong  for  itself, — the  be- 
lief, that  the  obligations  to  righteousness  and  holiness 
of  life  may  be  vicariously  discharged,  and  that  reli- 
gion is  a  work  which  every  individual  may  safely 
consign  to  the  care  and  management  of  a  spiritual 
factor.  The  Christian  is  here  solemnly  reminded 
that  a  day  will  come,  when  each  man  shall  be  called 
to  answer  personally  for  himself,  and  when  no  agent 
or  "  attorney  of  the  soul,"  will  be  heard  in  his  behalf, 
These  were  strange  and  startling  words  to  the  ears 
of  Englishmen  in  the  fourteenth  century.  They  filled 
the  hearts  of  the  ecclesiastical  craftsmen  with  dismay 

•  Doctrina  Christiana,  lib.  ii.  ad  fin.  cited  by  Lewis,  p.  87. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  221 

and  indignation.  Throughout  .their  various  ranks 
and  orders,  they  began  to  exclaim  that,  if  these  doc- 
trines were  to  be  endured,  they  might  as  well  throw 
up  their  functions  at  once.  If  all  might  consult  the 
divine  oracles,  without  the  intervention  of  the  priest- 
hood,— if  all  might  be  allowed  to  conduct  the  entan- 
gling traffic  and  mystery  of  their  own  spiritual  con- 
cerns, without  the  aid  of  a  professional  agent, — what 
further  demand  could  there  be  for  the  services  of  the 
consecrated  Orders  ?  The  resentment  of  the  hierar- 
chy, did  not,  however,  evaporate  in  mere  "  sound  and 
fury."  More  substantial  indications  of  their  dis- 
pleasure were  in  active  preparation ;  and  the  auda- 
city with  which  the  Reformer  assailed  the  received 
doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,  soon  provided  his  enemies 
with  an  opportunity  of  renewing  their  hostilities. 
Before  we  retire  from  the  considera-  WiHip« 

.  /»   i  •  i      •         •  1 1  i  iciii  s      ver- 

tion  of  this  great  work,  it  will  be  proper  sion  proscribed 
to  notice  the  astonishing  rapidity  with  bmneveXeaa 
which  the  copies  of  it  were  circulated  widely  circuia- 
among  all  classes  of  the  people,  in  defi-  ted- 
ance  of  obstructions,  which,  at  this  day,  it  is  difficult 
for  us  to  appreciate,  or  even  to  imagine.  The  as- 
tonishing powers  of  the  press  almost  disable  us  from 
realizing  to  our  conceptions  the  impediments  through 
which  literature  had  to  force  its  way,  in  the  ages 
previous  to  that  invention.  Those  impediments, 
however,  may  be  partially  estimated  from  the  fact, 
disclosed  to  us  by  the  register  of  Alnwick,  Bishop  of 
Norwich  in  1429,  that  the  cost  of  a  Testament  of 
"Wiclifs  version,  was  no  less  than  21.  16s.  Sd.  a  sum, 
probably,  equal  to  30/.  of  our  present  money,  and 
considerably  more  than  half  the  annual  income  which 
was  then  considered  adequate  to  the  maintenance  of 
a  substantial  yeoman.  To  procure  a  copy  of  the 
whole  English  Bible  must,  therefore,  have  demanded 
a  sacrifice  greater  than  that  which,  in  our  days,  is 
required  to  command  the  most  sumptuous  and  splen- 
did elegances  of  literature.  To  .this  discouragement 
19*  *> 


222  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

must  be  added  the  anxiety  and  the  danger  which  this 
precious  possession  carried  with  it,  wherever  it  went. 
Puring  the  time  which  elapsed  from  the  reign  of 
flenry  IV.  to  the  period  of  the  reformation,  the 
owner  of  a  fragment  of  Wiclif's  Bible,  or  indeed  of 
any  other  portion  of  his  writings,  was  conscious  of 
harbouring  a  witness,  whose  appearance  would  infak 
libly  consign  him  to  the  dungeon,  and  possibly  to  the 
flames.  He  must,  consequently,  have  eaten  the  breadl 
of  life  in  secret,  and  with  carefulness,  and  must  have 
drank  the  waters  of  life  with,  astonishment  and  trem* 
bling  of  heart.  And  yet,  in  defiance  of  obstruction 
and  of  persecution,  tjie  work  went  on.  Neither  the 
ruinous  cost  of  literary  treasures,  nor  the  jealous  vigi- 
lance of  an  omnipresent  inquisition,  were  able  to 
Depress  it.  The  stream  continued  to  force  its  way, 
in  a  sort  of  subterraneous  course,  till  the  season  ar- 
rived when  it  should  burst  forth,  and  refresh  the  land 
with  its  fruitful  inundation.  "  Then  was  the  sacred 
Bible  sought  out  from  dusty  corners :  the  schools 
were  ppened ;  divine  and  human  learning  raked  out 
,of  the  embjers  of  forgotten  tongues ;  princes  and  cities 
trooped  apace  to  the  newly  erected  banner  of  salva- 
tion ;  martyrs,  with  the  unresistible  might  of  weak- 
ness, shook  th,e  powers  of  darkness,  and  scorned  the 
fiery  rage  gf  the  old  Red  Dragon."* 

i38l  The  year  1381  was  rendered  unhappily 

insurrection  of  memorable  by  the  insurrection  of  the 
.the peasantry.  peasantry  of  England;  an  event  some 
notice  of  which  is  forced  into  a  narrative  of  the  life 
of  Wiclif,  by  the  assertion  of  some  historians,  that 
the  popular  excesses  were  occasioned,  or  greatly  ag- 
gravated, by  the  diffusion  of  his  doctrines.  By  one 
Causes  assigned  of  these  annalists  it  is  gravely  conjectured 
for  it  by  Papal  that  this  calamity  was  a  clear  indication 
pf  the  displeasure  of  Heaven  against  the 

*  >Iilton,  on  Reforrnation  in  England. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  223 

supiaeness  of  the  hierarchy,  which  had  omitted  to 
repress,  with  due  vigour,  the  impiety  of  Wiclif  and 
his  followers,  in  disseminating  the  perverse  and 
damnable  doctrines  of  Berengarius,  respecting  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ.  And  this  surmise  the 
chronicler,  with  all  imaginable  solemnity,  strength- 
ens by  reference  to  the  extraordinary  fact,  that  true 
commotions  were  simultaneous  all  over  England; 
and  that  they  occurred  precisely  within  the  octaves 
of  that  festival,  in  which  the  mystery  of  the  transub- 
stantiation  is  celebrated  by  the  Church !  He  adds, 
that,  although  it  may  be  reasonably  believed  that 
Archbishop  Sudbury,  (who  was  brutally  murdered  by 
the  rabble,)  may  have  died  a  martyr — yet  the  barba- 
rous manner  of  his  death  was  probably  appointed  in 
mercy,  as  a  needful  expiation  for  the  sinful  laxity  of 
his  discipline.  Others  there  were,  he  confesses, 
who  ascribed  the  affliction  to  the  scandalous  lives, 
the  odious  tyranny,  the  shameless  hypocrisy,  nay, 
the  downright  atheism,  prevalent  among  the  wealthy 
and  the  noble  of  the  land :  and  many,  again,  were  per^ 
suadedihat  the  measure  of  national  iniquity  was  filled 
up  by  ,the  coarse  profligacy,  and  rebellious  insolence, 
of  the  populace  themselves.  And  his  conclusion, 
upon  the  whole  matter,  is,  that  in  this  instance,  the 
wrath  of  God  manifestly  came  down  upon  the  children 
of  disobedience.^  A  more  modern  historian,  without 
.the  slightest  appearance  of  doubt  or  hesitation,  attri- 
butes much  of  the  excitement  to  the  notions  ascribed 
to  Wiclif,  and  disseminated  by  his  followers, — namely, 
that  the  right  of  property,  was  founded  in  grace,  and 
ithat  no  one  who  was,  by  sin,  a  traitor  to 
£od,  could  be  justly  entitled  to  the  ser-  proiSy^Th^ 
yicesofman.f  A  more  plain  and  rational  wretchedness 
.account  of  the  affair  surely  is,  that  this  of 
was  one  of  those  terrible  and  convulsive 

•  Wala  p.  281.  t  £ing.  vol.  iv.  .p.  236. 


224  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

efforts,  by  which  the  lower  classes,  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  laboured  to  heave  off  the  load  of  intolerable 
servitude;  —  a  phenomenon  of  the  same  class  with 
jacquerie  of  France,  and  the  rebellion  of  the  Flem- 
ings ;  —  a  servile  war,  the  natural  effect  of  wretched- 
ness, goaded  to  frenzy  by  the  unfeeling  arrogance  and 
luxury  of  the  great.  The  cruelty  of  the  English 
aristocracy  may,  indeed,  have  been  considerably  less 
atrocious  than  that  which  drove  the  peasantry  of 
other  countries  to  despair.  But  the  circumstances  of 
the  age  were  such  as  probably  tempted  them  to  harrass 
their  dependents  with  more  grinding  exaction  than 
they  had  experienced  in  preceding  times.  The  land- 
ed proprietors  had  been  impoverished,  partly  by  an 
unprecedented  and  long-continued  severity  of  taxa- 
tion, and  partly  by  their  own  inordinate  craving  for 
foreign  luxuries  01  the  most  costly  description.  The 
embarrassment  thus  produced,  naturally  engendered 
avarice  ;  and  avarice,  probably,  gave  birth  to  an  in- 
human disregard  for  the  comfort  of  the  poor,  more 
especially  of  those  who  held  their  lands  by  the  tenure 
of  unmitigated  villenage.*  In  all  this,  there  was 
power  sufficient  to  raise  the  tempest,  which  threatened 
all  the  embankments  of  civilized  society,  without  the 
aid  of  fanatical  agitation.  It  is  true,  that  the  grow- 
"atred  °f  ecclesiastical  dominion 


the  may  have  intimately  connected  itself 
growing  impa-  witn  a  wild  impatience  of  all  authority 
sieaSiec^fpoweer:  whatever.  It  is,  also,  possible  that  the 
voice  of  loud  invective  against  the  Church, 
may  have  assisted  to  call  up,  from  the  depths  of  the 
popular  discontent,  a.  mad  ungovernable  spirit  of 
anarchy  and  rebellion.  The  charges  with  which  the 
clergy  were  assailed,  were,  indeed,  frequently  such 
as  an  exasperated  populace  might  easily  transfer  to 
abuse  and  tyranny  of  every  description  :  and  nothing, 

-  See  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  vol.  iv.  p.  266-267. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  225 

it  must  be  confessed,  can  well  be  more  hopeless  than 
the  attempt  to  deny,  that  the  language  adopted  by 
Wiclif,  or  his  itinerant  preachers,  in  urging  their 
principles  of  reformation,  did,  frequently,  burst 
through  the  barriers  of  sobriety  and  caution,  and  was, 
occasionally,  violent  enough  to  compromise  the  safety 
of  nearly  all  existing  institutions.  It  may  be  diffi- 
cult, in  times  remote  from  this  tumultuous  period,  to 
frame,  or  to  admit,  a  complete  vindication  of  such 
dangerous  extravagance.  But  every  one,  who  is  well 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  man,  must,  at  least, 
be  well  persuaded  of  this, — that  sedate  and  calcula- 
ting spirits,  like  those  of  Erasmus,  or  Melanchthon, 
could  never  have  shaken  the  gigantic  strength  of  the 
Papal  system.  They  could  neither  have  effected  the 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  nor  have  done 
the  office  of  pioneers  to  that  great  movement.  This 
consideration,  it  is  true,  may  be  quite  insufficient  for 
,the  justification  of  rashness  and  excess;  but  it  may, 
at  all  events,  dispose  us  to  look  somewhat  more  in- 
dulgently on  that  intensity  of  soul,  which  injustice  of  as- 
troubled  the  waters,  by  whose  disturbance  cribing  it  to  the 
we  have  been,  eventually,  made  whole,  SfdrVSS? 
As  for  the  speculations  of  the  Papal  and  his  foiiow- 
writers,  who  connect  the  Rebellion  of  ers* 
1381  with  the  doctrinal  heresies  of  Wiclif,  it  has 
been  truly  remarked,  thaj  their  charges  are  just  as 
absurd  as  it  would  be  to  ascribe  the  outrages  of  the 
Anabaptists  of  Munster  to  the  theological  opinions  of 
Luther.*  Equally  unfounded  is  the  insinuation,  that 
the  principles  entertained  by  the  Reformer  were  de- 
Uberately  hostile  to  all  authority,  whether  spiritual 
or  secular,  and  that  he  deserved  the  confidence  of  the 
State  as  little  as  that  of  the  Church.  However  per- 
plexing it  might  be  to  defend  him  from  the  imputa- 
tion of  hazardous  notions,  and  unguarded  phraseolo- 

•  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  vol.  Ui.  p.  266. 


226  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

gy,  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and  the  general  tenor 
of  his  writings,  must  unquestionably,  acquit  him  of 
the  character  of  a  political  incendiary.  Some  further 
reflections,  however,  on  this  subject,  will  find  a  pro- 
per place,  when  we  come  to  a  review  of  the  opinions 
of  Wiclif,  and  the  proceedings  of  his  "  Poor  Priests," 
or  travelling  preachers. 


LIFE   OF   WICL1F.  227 

CHAPTER  VII. 
1381-1382. 

Wiclif  hitherto  employed  in  exposing  the  corruptions  of  the  Papacy 
— He  now  engages  in  the  Sacramental  Controversy — Notice  of  the 
history  of  this  question — Pascasius  Radbert — Bertram  ana  Jo- 
hannes Scotus — Berengarius — Transubstantiation  established 
by  Innocent  III. — Metaphysical  explanation  of  it  by  the  Mendi- 
cants— This  doctrine  unknown  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church — 
Probably  introduced  into  England  at  the  Conquest— Wiclif  at- 
tacks the  doctrine  from  the  chair  of  theology — His  positions  de- 
nounced, on  pain  of  excommunication — He  appeals  to  the  King 
— He  is  desired  by  John  of  Gaunt  to  abstain  from  the  subject 
— He  composes  his  Ostiolum  or  Wicket — Courtney  succeeds  to  the. 
Primacy — Synod  held  by  him  at  the  Preaching  Friars'  in  Lon- 
don— The  Assembly  disturbed  by  an  Earthquake — Address  and 
self-possession  of  Courtney — Twenty-four  Conclusionsf  ascribed 
to  Wiclif  condemned — Measures  taken  for  the  suppression  of  his 
Doctrines — Petition  of  the  Spiritual  Lords  against  the  Lollards 
—Royal  ordinance,  empowering  Sheriffs  to  arrest  and  imprison 
the  Preachers  of  false  doctrine — It  is  introduced  into  the  Parlia- 
ment Roll  without  the  consent  of  Lords  or  Commons — Further 
proceedings  of  the  Primate — Wiclif  himself  not  yet  summoned 
before  the  Archbishop — Possibly  still  protected  by  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster — Wiclif 3s  complaint  to  the  King  and  Parliament — 
Petition  of  the  Commons  against  the  Ordinance  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  erroneous  doctrine — Wiclif  summoned  to  answer  before 
the  Convention  at  Oxford — He  is  abandoned  by  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster— He  maintains  his  opinions — He  delivers  in  two  Confes- 
sions, one  in  English,  the  other  in  Latin — His  English  Confes- 
sion— His  Latin  Confession — He  is  banished  from  Oxford — He 
retires  to  Lutterworth — He  is  summoned  by  the  Pope  to  appear 
before  him — His  answer. 

THE  attacks  of  Wiclif  had  hitherto  been 
principally  directed  against  enormities,  ^pfiyed1^? 
which  had  long  been  raising  up  a  spirit  posing  the  eor- 
of  disaffection  towards  the  Romish  hie-  p^pt^ns  of  the 
rarchy.     Up  to  this  time,  he  had  ap- 
peared as  the  advocate  of  the  University,  in  defence 
of  her  privileges — as  the  champion  of  the  Crown,  in 
the  vindication  of  its  rights  and  prerogatives — as  the 
friend  of  the  people,  in  the  preservation  of  their  pro-* 


228  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

perty — and  as  the  ally  of  the  whole  world,  against 
He  now  en  "es  ^e  a^use  °^  ecclesiastical  power.  He 
hi6Tiwe"?cr*  was  now  to  appear  in  a  somewhat  dif- 
mentai  Contro-  erent,  and  still  more  arduous,  position. 
He  was  about  to  carry  his  operations  into 
the  most  secret  chambers  of  the  great  Mystery  of 
Iniquity ; — to  encounter  the  ghostly  might  of  an 
almost  invisible,  but  tremendously  powerful  adver- 
sary ; — an  adversary  the  more  formidable,  because  the 
conflict  against  it  was  to  be,  chiefly,  carried  on  in  the 
regions  of  metaphysical  abstraction,  to  which  the 
combatant  could  hardly  be  followed  by  the  sympa- 
thies, or  even  by  the  understandings,  of  mankind. 
So  long  as  he  arraigned  the  palpable  corruptions  of 
the  Church,  he  might  be  regarded  as  sustaining  the 
contest  in  the  open  day,  and  under  the  light  of  hea- 
ven. But  a  polemic  who,  in  those  times,  should  pre- 
sume to  assail  the  Romish  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist, 
had  an  adventure  before  him,  somewhat  resembling 
that  of  the  pagan  hero,  when  he  plunged  into  the  den 
of  Cacus,  where  he  had  to  encounter,  not  only  the 
might  of  his  antagonist,  but  the  volumes  of  smoke 
which  he  discharged  from  his  jaws ;  a  darkness  which 
aggravated  the  danger  and  difficulty  of  the  struggle, 
and  almost  entirely  concealed  it  from  the  gaze  of  the 
spectator.  Hence  it  was,  that, — so  long  as  Wiclif 
was  seen  to  grapple  with  the  practices  of  the  Papacy 
and  its  adherents,  or  with  those  doctrines  and  princi- 
ples which  were  more  immediately  connected  with  its 
visible  abuses, — so  long  he  was  supported  by  the 
patronage  of  the  great,  and  by  the  applauses  of  the 
many.  But  when  once  he  plunged  into  the  darkness 
of  the  sacramental  controversy,  the  scene  of  conten- 
tion was  removed  from  the  sphere  of  general  intelli- 
gence or  interest.  He  was  regarded  by  many  as 
engaged  in  desperate  opposition  to  the  awful  and  in- 
scrutable majesty  of  truth,  which,  here,  demanded 
the  submission  of  the  understanding  without  appear- 
ing to  invade  the  personal  comfort  or  interest  of  the 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  229 

believer.  They  who  were  loudest  in  their  outcry 
against  the  Church,  were,  in  that  age,  but  little  dis- 
turbed by  her  most  extravagant  demands  on  their 
credulity.  When  we  are  told  by  the  chroniclers,  that 
every  second  man  that  mi^ht  be  met  on  the  road  was 
a  Lollard,  we  are  not  to  imagine  that  the  country 
swarmed  with  persons  whose  minds  were  in  a  state 
of  insurrection  against  the  extravagances  of  errone- 
ous belief;  but  that  there  prevailed  a  very  general 
indignation  against  the  pride  and  greediness  of  the 
Pope  and  his  ministers,  and  an  increasing  strength  of 
persuasion  that  the  ecclesiastical  system  required  an 
unsparing  reform.  We  shall  accordingly  find,  that 
when  Wiclif  stepped  from  the  ground  on  which  he 
had  hitherto  combated,  and  ascended,  as  it  were,  into 
the  mount,  where  clouds  and  darkness  were  gathered 
round  him,  his  friends  and  followers  began  to  fall 
away.  The  feelings  of  many  of  the  people  towards 
him  somewhat  resembled  those  of  the  Israelites 
towards  their  legislator,  when  they  exclaimed,  "  as  for 
this  Moses,  we  wot  not  what  is  become  of  him !" 

It  would  be  unseasonable,  and  utterly  Notice  of  the 
useless,  to  introduce  here  a  lengthened  history  of  this 
history  of  the  disputes  which  had  long  <iuestloa 
agitated  the  Church,  respecting  the  mysterious  pre- 
sence of  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharistic  ele- 
ments. That  it  was  present,  in  some  mode  or  other 
which  sufficiently  warranted  the  faithful  to  speak  of 
it  as  really  present,  seems  to  have  been  the  general 
and  almost  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Church  from 
the  earliest  times ;  although,  as  may  readily  be  ima- 
gined, every  attempt  to  explain  this  reality,  and  to 
reconcile  it  with  the  notion  of  a  mere  sacramental 
or  symbolical  presence,  was  sure  to  involve  the  dis- 
putants in  a  labyrinth  of  perplexity  and  self-contra- 
diction. Up  to  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  how- 
ever, as  Mosheim  observes,*  "  both  reason  and  folly 

*  EccL  Hist  vol.  ii.  p.  340. 
20 


230  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

had  been  left  free  in  this  matter ;  nor  had  any  impe- 
rious mode  of  faith  suspended  the  exercise  of  the  one, 
or  restrained  the  extravagance  of  the  other."  The 
first  person  who  undertook  to  reduce  the  doctrine  of 
Paecasius  itad-  the  Church  to  certainty  and  precision,  was 
ten.  Pascasius  Radbert,  a  monk,  afterwards 

abbot  of  Corbey :  who  maintained,  that,  after  the 
consecration  of  the  bread  and  wine,  nothing  remain- 
ed of  those  symbols  but  the  outward  figure ;  under 
which  figure,  the  very  same  body  that  suffered  on 
the  cross  was  really  and  locally  present.  This  opinion 
Bertram andJo-  was  speedily  opposed  by  the  two  emi- 
hannee  Scotus.  nent  divines,  Bertram,  and  Johannes 
Scotus :  but  the  controversy  was  still  left  to  exhaust 
itself,  uncontrolled  by  any  definite  sentence  of  the 
Church.  In  the  eleventh  century,  when  the  dispute 
burst  out  again,  the  cause  of  reason  and  common 
sense  was  vigorously  sustained  by  the  celebrated 
Berengarius,  Archbishop  of  Angers,  who 
persisted  in  teaching  that  the  elements, 
after  consecration,  preserved  their  natural  and  essen- 
tial qualities,  being  nothing  more  than  symbols  or 
representatives  of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Saviour* 
By  this  time,  however,  the  hierarchy  of  Rome  appear 
to  have  become  sensible,  that  the  doctrine,  which 
gave  to  the  sacramental  rite  the  character  of  a  pro* 
digy,  was  admirably  fitted  to  exalt  the  mystie  and 
hierurgical  dignity  of  the  priesthood.  The  theology 
of  Berengarius  was,  accordingly,  assailed  with  out- 
rageous vehemence.  The  terrors  of  spiritual  power 
were  levelled  against  it,  fiercely  and  angrily  by  Leo 
IX.  and  Nicholas  II.,  somewhat  more  faintly  and 
doubtfully  by  Gregory  VII.  The  heretic  was  com- 
pelled to  sign,  successively,  three  distinct  confessions, 
each  differing  from  the  other,  but  all  of  them  amount- 
ing to  an  abjuration  of  his  own  real  opinions;  and 
his  latter  days  were  passed  in  exercises  of  penitence 
for  his  unworthy  dissimulation.*  It  was  not,  how- 

*  Mosheim,  vol.  ii.  p.  558—569. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  231 

ever,  till  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  that 
all  liberty  of  speech  and  opinion,  relative  to  this  sub- 
ject, was  finally  suppressed.  The  Pontiff  who  claims 
the  honour  of  this  triumph  over  human  reason  is 
Innocent  III.  In  the  fourth  council  of  Lateran, 
(which  was  held  in  1215,  and  at  which  were  assem- 
bled a  vast  concourse  of  ecclesiastics,  besides  the 
ambassadors  of  nearly  all  the  powers  of  Europe,) 
he  formerly  established  that  doctrine,  which,  to  the 
present  hour,  is  held  by  the  Church  of  Rome  as  the 
only  orthodox  and  true  one,  and  which,  from  that 
time,  has  been  uniformly  designated  by  Thg  doctrine  of 
the  term  transubstantiation.  This  word,  transubstanti- 
which  was  unknown  before  the  days  of  ation  estabiish- 
Innocent  III.,  was  introduced  to  express  ^by  Innocent 
the  precise  nature  of  the  change  effected 
in  the  elements  at  the  moment  of  consecration.  It 
is  obvious  that  the  grand  difficulty  which  thoughtful 
persons  would  have  to  encounter,  in  receiving  the 
doctrine  in  question,  arose  from  the  astounding  cir- 
cumstance, that  the  mystic  words  of  the  priest  left 
the  sensible  qualities  of  the  sacramental  bread  wholly 
unaltered.  That  Christ  himself  should,  in  some 
mysterious  and  spiritual  sense,  be  present  at  the 
solemnity,  might  not  be  too  much  for  the  faith  of  the 
most  enlightened  believer.  But,  that  an  actual 
change  should  take  place,  of  which  the  senses  should 
give  not  the  slightest  notice, — that  the  holy  thing 
received  by  the  communicant  should  still  retain  pre- 
cisely the  same  shape,  the  same  colour,  and  the  same 
taste,  which  belonged  to  the  unconsecrated  wafer,— 
was  a  subject  of  endless  perplexity  to  all,  except 
those  who  were  prepared  for  an  absolute  and  uncon- 
ditional surrender  of  their  faculties  to  the  authority 
of  the  Church.  In  order,  therefore,  to  confound  and 
repel  the  stubborn  testimony  of  the  M  . 
senses,  the  Mendicant  Orders,  who  were  expiSon^of 
the  creatures  of  the  Pontiff,  called  in  the  doctrine  by 
Metaphysics  to  the  aid  of  Superstition.  the  Mendicants' 


232  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

They  scrupled  not  to  maintain,  that,  although  sub- 
stances are  usually  known  to  us  only  by  their  sensi- 
ble properties,  or  accidents,  yet  no  substance  is,  in  its 
own  nature,  inseparable  from  its  accidents,  A  mira- 
cle might  disunite  the  qualities  from  their  proper 
subject ;  and  these  qualities  might  continue  to  act 
upon  our  senses,  even  after  the  subject  itself  was 
destroyed  or  withdrawn.  And  such  a  miracle,  they 
contended,  was  actually  performed  at  every  celebra- 
tion of  the  Eucharist,  The  substance  of  the  bread 
was  taken  away,  the  instant  the  words  of  consecra- 
tion had  passed  the  lips  of  the  priest,  and  the  sub- 
*stance  of  Christ's  body  was  introduced  in  its  place. 
Our  senses,  it  is  true,  give  us  no  intelligence  of  this 
substitution ;  for  our  senses  take  no  cognizance  of 
the  interior  essences  of  things.  The  substance  of  the 
body  of  our  Lord,  when  invested  with  the  sensible 
properties  of  the  wafer,  would,  consequently,  affect 
the  senses  precisely  as  the  wafer  itself  affected  them, 
previously  to  its  consecration.  To  appeal,  therefore, 
to  the  evidence  of  the  senses,  was,  in  effect,  to  call 
in  witnesses  which  could  depose  nothing  as  to  the 
matter  in  question.  And  the  grand  difficulty  being 
thus  disposed  of,  by  a  process  of  metaphysical  leger- 
demain, mankind  were  left  without  excuse,  if  they 
refused  the  mystery  of  transubstantiation  ! 
This  doctrine  That  the  corporeal  presence  of  Christ 
unknown to'the  in  the  sacrament  was  never  acknow- 
Angio-saxon  ledged  as  an  article  of  faith  by  our  an- 
cient Anglo-Saxon  Church,  seems  to  be 
beyond  all  reasonable  question.  The  opinion  enter- 
tained respecting  that  mystery,  previously  to  the 
Conquest,  is  distinctly  expressed  in  a  very  ancient 
homily,  translated  into  the  Saxon  tongue,  probably 
from  a  Latin  original  no  longer  extant,  by  jElfric, 
abbot  of  St.  Alban's,  in  the  tenth  century ;  and  fur- 
ther, from  two  epistles  of  the  same  writer,  one  of 
them  addressed  to  Wulfine,  bishop  of  Sherborne,  the 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  233 

other  to  Wulfstane,  archbishop  of  Canterbury.*  The 
homily  in  question  contains  a  copious  exposition  of 
the  sacramental  doctrine  ;  and  its  language  expressly 
negatives  the  tenet  of  traiisubstantiation.  "  Much," 
it  says,  "  is  betwixt  the  body  in  which  Christ  suffered, 
and  the  body  which  is  hallowed  to  housell.  The 
body,  truly,  in  which  Christ  suffered,  was  born  of  the 
flesh  of  Mary,  with  a  reasonable  soul ;  his  ghostly 
body,  which  we  call  the  housell,  is  gathered  of  many 
grains,  without  blood,  bone,  limb,  or  soul.  And, 
therefore,  nothing  is  to  be  understood  therein  bodily, 
but  all  is  ghostly  to  be  understood."!  Again,  "  Truly 
it  is,  as  we  have  said,  Christ's  body  and  his  blood, 
not  bodily,  but  ghostly:  and  ye  should  not  search 
how  this  is  done,  but  hold  it  in  your  belief  that  it  is 
done. "|  Precisely  conformable  to  this  is  the  lan- 
guage of  the  two  epistles.  "  Understand  now  that 
the  Lord,  who  could  turn  the  bread,  before  his  suf- 
fering, into  his  body,  and  the  wine  into  his  blood, 
ghostly,  the  self-same  Lord  blesseth  daily,  through 
the  priest's  hands,  bread  and  wine  to  his  ghostly  body, 
and  his  ghostly  blood. "§  "  The  lively  bread  is  not 
.bodily  so,  notwithstanding, — not  the  self-same  body 
that  Christ  suffered  in ;  nor  is  the  holy  wine  the  Sa- 
viour's blood  which  was  shed  for  us  in  bodily  thing 
{or  reality,)  but  in  ghostly  understanding"^  These 
testimonies  are  the  more  remarkable,  because  they 
are  mixed  up  with  other  matters  which  savour  gross- 
ly of  Romish  superstition,  and  show  that  the  senti- 
ments expressed  on  the  subject  of  the  Eucharist, 
were  dictated  by  no  spirit  of  opposition  to  the  autho- 

*  This  Anglo-Saxon  homily,  and  the  two  epistles  above  mentioned, 
also  in  Anglo-Saxon,  were  printed  by  John  Day,  1567,  under  the  title 
of  "  A  Testimony  of  Antiquitie,  showing  the  auncient  faith  in  the 
Church  of  England,  touching  the  Sacrament,  &c.  &c."  They  are  fol- 
lowed by  a  certificate  of  the  faithfulness  and  accuracy  with  which  they 
were  taken  from  the  ancient  books,  signed  by  Archbishop  Parker,  and 
fifteen  other  bishops.  The  copy  which  I  have  seen  is  in  the  public  libra- 
ry of  Cambridge.  It  is  in  a  small  volume,  (Ff.  16.  78.)  and  is  bound  up 
Fith  several  other  tracts. 

t  Testimony  of  Antiquitie,  &c.  p.  36.  t  Ibid.  p.  38,  39. 

§  Testimony  of  Antiquitie,  &c.  p.  64.  B  Ibid.  p.  70. 

20* 


234  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

rity  of  the  Church,  In  the  next,  century,  however, 
The  doctrine  came  the  Norman  Conquest;  and  this 
probably  imro-  event  consigned  the  see  of  Canterbury 
i-ulii  at'thcCun"  to  the  care  of  Lanfranc,  who  was  not 
quest,  by  Arch-  only  a  devoted  adherent  to  the  Papacy, 
bish-  Lanfranc.  |)ut  one  of  fae  most  eminent  and  power* 

ful  among  the  antagonists  of  Berengarius.  There  is 
still  extant  a  dissertation  of  his  concerning  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist,  in  which  he 
labours  to  establish  the  reality  of  the  corporeal  prer 
sence,  in  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Archbisnop 
of  Angers :  and,  from  that  period  till  the  days  01 
Wiclif,  the  Romish  doctrine,  as  first  maintained  by 
Radbert,  and  as  subsequently  explained  and  vindi? 
cated  by  the  Mendicants,  appears  to  have  gradually 
and  silently  established  itselr  in  our  national  Church, 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  sentiments  of 
Wiclif  on  this  point  must  have  long  been  known  to, 
his  friends  and  his  parishioners ;  for  the  subject  is, 
one  of  perpetual  recurrence  in  his  sermons.  But  i£ 
1381  was  fr°m  th®  chair  of  theology  that  he 
Wiclif  attacks  commenced  his  formal  attack  against  this 
thens  rt»rinti  °f  absurdities  °f  tne  received  doctrine,  and 
tSn^from^the  more  especially  against  the  metaphysical 
chair  of  theoio-  wonders  introduced  by  the  Friars.  In 
the  lectures  delivered  by  him  in  1381,  he 
put  forth  twelve  conclusions,  in  which  he  maintained 
that  "  the  consecrated  host  we  see  upon  the  altar,  is 
neither  Christ,  npr  any  part  of  him,  but  an  effectual 
sign  of  him ;  and  that  tran substantiation,  identifica- 
tion, or  impanation,  rest  upon  no  scriptural  ground."* 
J3y  the  religious  Orders,  who  were  then  in  high  pre- 
dominance at  Oxford,  this  was  regarded  as  an  auda- 
His  sitions  c*ous  declaration  of  war  :  and  a  conven- 
denounced  "cm  tion  was  immediately  summoned  by  the 
pain  of  excom-  Chancellor,  William  de  Berton,  for  the 
ion,&c.  purp0se  Of  preparing  an  adverse  mani- 
festo. By  this  assembly,  which  consisted  of  twelve 

*  Lewis,  c.  vi.  p.  91. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  235 

doctors,  eight  of  whom  were  either  monks  or  mendi- 
cants, a  solemn  decree  was  unanimously  pronounced,* 
which  first  recites  the  substance  of  Wiclif 's  conclu- 
sions, (namely,  that  the  material  elements  remain 
unaltered  after  consecration,  and  that  Christ  is  not 
essentially,  substantially,  or  corporeally  present  in  the 
sacrament,  but  only  figuratively,  or  tropically  ;)  and 
then  proceeds  to  declare  and  affirm  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation,  in  its  fullest  extravagance.  It 
concludes  by  denouncing  imprisonment,  suspension 
jof  scholastic  exercises,  and  the  greater  excommunica- 
tion, as  the  penalties  of  teaching  or  listening  to 
;the  opposite  doctrine.  The  instrument,  thus  pre- 
pared, was  not  suffered  to  remain  a  moment  idle.  It 
was  dispatched  to  the  school  of  the  Augustines, — 
,where  Wiclif  was  actually  seated,  as  Professor,  en- 
forcing the  condemned  positions, — and  was  there 
promulgated  in  the  hearing  of  his  pupils.  The  sud- 
xlenness  of  the  invasion  threw  the  Reformer  into  mo- 
jnentary  confusion.  He,  however,  soon  recovered 
his  self-possession,  defied  his  adversaries 
to  refute  his  opinions,  and  proclaimed  J^theKi^1: 
his  resolution  to  appeal  to  the  king.t 

*  This  decree  is  printed,  at  length,  in  Wilkins,  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  170, 
,with  the  signatures  of  the  twelve  doctors,  of  whom  four  only  are  seculars. 

t  Wilk.  Cone.  p.  171.  We  recommend  to  the  attention  of  Dr.  Lingard, 
(who  is  pleased  to  censure  the  coarseness  of  Wiclif's  invectives,)  the 
mild,  pacific,  and  exemplary  language,  in  which  the  chronicler  Walsing- 
ham  notices  the  opinions  of  the  Reformer,  on  the  subject  of  the  Eucharist. 
"At  this  time,"  (A.  D.  1381,)  he  says,  "that  old  hypocrite,  that 
angel  of  Satan,  that  emissary  of  Anti-Christ,  the  not-to-be  named  John 
Wiclif,  or  rather  Wickebeleve,  the  heretic,  continued  his  ravings,  and 
.seemed  as  if  he  would  drink  up  Jordan,  and  plunge  all  Christians  into 
the  abyss,  by  reviving  the  damnable  opinions  of  Berengarius,  &c.  &c." 
He  then  tells  a  story  about  a  certain  knight  of  high  repute,  near  Salisbury, 
who  ran  away  with  the  sacrament ;  and,  in  order  to  show  that  it  was  no 
better  than  so  much  household  bread,  irreverently  devoured  it,  together 
with  oysters,  and  onions,  and  wine.  The  knight  it  seems,  survived  the 
sacrilege;  but  being  afterwards  brought  to  aljetter  mind,  testified  his 
sorrow,  by  submission  to  very  heavy  penances.  And  this,  says  the  his- 
.torian,  I  have  the  more  fully  related,  that  it  may  appear  what  evils  were 
scattered  over  the  land  by  that  beast  from  the  bottomless  pit,  that  col- 
league of  Satan,  John  Wiclif,  or  Wickebeleve.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
match  this  from  the  pages  of  the  monster  himself!  Wals.  p.  256. 


ZJb  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

This  determination  appears  to  have  occasioned  the 
greatest  astonishment.  That  a  person  charged  with 
theological  error  should  think  of  appealing,  not  to 
the  Pope,  not  even  to  the  bishop  or  ecclesiastical  ordi- 
nary, but  to  the  Crown,  was  deemed  an  act  of  out- 
rageous contumacy  against  the  spiritual  powers.  The 
measure,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  one  of  singular 
audacity.  Its  boldness  was  too  much 
for  the  spirit  of  John  of  Gaunt  himself, 
to  abstain  from  the  illustrious  friend  and  patron  of  the 
Eucharist?" the  Ref°rmer«  For  no  sooner  did  he  receive 
intelligence  of  it,  than  he  posted  to  Ox- 
ford for  the  express  purpose  of  forbidding  Wiclif  to 
speak  further  on  this  matter  ;  and  by  this  good  office, 
he  has  purchased  for  himself,  in  the  chronicles  of  the 
age,  the  title  of  a  sa^e  counsellor,  and  a  faithful  soa 
of  holy  Church.*  His  admonitions,  it  will  be  seen 
hereafter,  were  totally  in  vain.  The  only  effect  pro- 
duced  by  the  authority  of  the  Primate,  the  sentence 
of  the  Chancellor,  and  the  influence  of  his  protector, 
was  to  reduce  him  to  silence,  until  the  opportunity 
should  arrive  for  removing  his  cause  to  the  supreme 
tribunal. 

He  composes  But  though  his  tongue  was  restrained, 
kis  "pstioium"  his  pen  continued  active.  He  employed 
or  Wicket.  j^e  mterval  which  elapsed  before  the 
next  meeting  of  Parliament,  in  the  composition  of  a 
small  treatise  by  the  title  of  Ostiolum,  or  the  Wicket, 
the  object  of  which  is  to  expose  the  manifold  contra- 
dictions and  absurdities  adhering  to  the  dogma  which 
he  had  been  forbidden  to  assail.  In  this  treatise  he 
reprobates  without  mercy  the  blasphemous  presump- 
tion involved  in  the  Popish  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist. 
It  was  asserted  by  the  clergy  that,  by  virtue  of  their 
stupendous  function,  they  were  enabled  to  create  God 

ix  egregius,  et 
MI  ,cc;,  sacrae  Ecclesise 
quod  de  caetero  non 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  237 

their  Creator ;  and  their  deduction  from  these  mon- 
strous premises  was,  that  persons  invested  with  such 
transcendent  spiritual  powers  ought  never  to  be  de- 
graded hy  subjection  to  any  secular  authority.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  to  listen  without  a  trepidation  to 
such  impiety:  and  yet,  bad  as  it  was,  Wiclif  clearly 
shows  that  its  enormity  was  here  greatly  understated. 
For  if  the  words  of  blessing  or  consecration  could 
effect  the  wonders  ascribed  to  them,  it  must  inevita- 
bly follow  that  the  priests,  who  pronounced  them, 
must  not  only  be  elevated  far  above  all  earthly  juris- 
diction, but  must  also  "wax  great  masters  above 
Christ  himself,  and  be  the  dispensers  of  his  substance ; 
so  that,  since  it  is  written,  thou  shalt  honour  thy  father 
and  thy  mother,  Christ  would  be  bound  to  honour 
with  filial  reverence  the  priests  who  thus  became 
the  fathers  and  creators  of  himself!"  He,  further, 
exposes,  with  singular  felicity,  the  absurdity,  that 
each  portion  of  the  sacramental  bread  became  the  un- 
divided body  of  Christ.  This  position  was  sometimes 
illustrated  by  reference  to  a  glass,  shivered  into  a 
multitude  of  fragments,  each  of  which  might  still 
retain  the  power  of  reflecting  the  same  countenance ; 
an  explanation  which  was  ingeniously  turned  by 
the  Reformer  against  the  doctrine  of  his  opponents. 
Each  fragment  of  the  glass,  he  observed,  could  pre- 
sent to  the  eye  nothing  more  than  the  image  of  a 
face,  not  the  very  face  itself:  and  even  so,  each  por- 
tion of  the  broken  bread  might  represent  the  body  of 
Christ,  but  could  do  nothing  more.  Again,  he  tri- 
umphantly asks  his  adversaries,  why  they  worship 
not  the  vine  for  God,  as  they  do  the  bread?  For 
Christ  has  affirmed  that  he  was  a  vine,  in  language 
as  express  as  that  in  which  he  declared  that  the 
bread  was  his  body,  and  the  cup  was  his  blood.  He 
adds,  that  literally  to  identify  the  bread  with  Christ's 
holy  body,  is  no  less  irrational  than  the  "  foul  mis- 
understanding" of  the  JCAVS,  who  perverted  the  figu- 
rative words  of  Christ,  respecting  his  own  body,  into 


238  LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  %• 

a  boast  that  he  could  destroy  the  temple  of  Jerusalem, 
and  build  it  in  three  days. 

On  the  14th  of  June,  1381,  the  See  of  Canterbury 
became  vacant  by  the  death  of  Simon  Sudbury,  who 
was  massacred  in  the  Tower,  by  the  fury  of  the  in- 
Coimney  sue-  surgent  peasantry.  His  successor  was 
cee.iv  to 'the  pri-  William  Courtney,  then  translated  from 
macy>  the  see  of  London  ;  a  personage  highly 

connected,  and  distinguished  for  his  passionate  devo- 
tion to  the  Papal  chair.  It  was  not  till  the  month 
of  May,  1382,  that  this  uncompromising  prelate  re- 
ceived the  pall  from  Rome ;  an  ensign  which,  in  his 
estimation,  was  absolutely  needful  to  the  completion 
of  his  authority  and  power.  On  the  17th  of  the  same 

month,  a  convention  of  divines  was  held, 
BraodnSb  by  by  nis  mandate,  at  the  priory  of  the 
him,  at  the  Preaching  Friars,  in  London.  The  as- 
aireaSnUonFri  sembly  consisted  of  eight  bishops  and 

fourteen  doctors  of  civil  or  canon  law* 
together  with  seventeen  doctors  and  six  bachelors  of 
divinity,  all  of  whom,  except  one,  were  either  Men- 
dicants or  Monks.*  At  this  meeting  the  firmness  of 
the  Archbishop  was  severely  put  to  the  test.  On  the 
commencement  of  their  deliberations,  it  so  happened 

The  assembly  l^al  l^e  wn°le  city  was  shaken  by  an 
disturb^  by  an  earthquake.  The  convulsion  immedi- 
earthquake.  ately  produced  some  unsteadiness  in  the 
counsels  of  the  Synod,  many  of  whom  appeared  to 
regard  it  as  a  sign  of  the  displeasure  of  heaven 
against  their  proceedings.  The  sinking  fortitude  of 
the  divines  would  probably  have  caused  a  dissolution 
Address  and  °f  tne  assembly,  had  not  the  Primate, 
seif-poesession  with  singular  address  and  self-posses- 
of  Courtney.  s{o^  converted  the  portent  to  his  own 
advantage.  He  assured  them  that  the  commotion 
they  had  witnessed,  being  produced  by  the  expulsion 
&f  noxious  vapours  from  the  earth,  was  evidently  a 

•  See  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  157,  158. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  239 

most  auspicious  intimation,  that  the  purity  and  the 
peace  of  the  Church  could  be  secured  only  by.the  vio- 
lent removal  of  all  rebellious  spirits  from  her  com- 
munion. The  courage  of  the  assembly  being  thus 
effectually  rallied,  they  proceeded  with  their  work  of 
inquisition.  Twenty-four  conclusions 
were  produced,  which,  it  .was  affirmed,  eonduaiom^u! 
had  been  publicly  preached  among  the  cribed  to  wic- 
nobles  and  commons  of  the  realm  of  llf'  condemned- 
England ;  and  after  three  days  of  "  good  and  mature 
deliberation,"  ten  of  these  conclusions  were  con- 
demned as  heretical,  and  the  remaining  fourteen  were 
pronounced  to  be  erroneous.*  The  errors  of  the  here- 
tical articles  related  chiefly  to  the  sacrament,  and  the 
mass — to  the  forfeiture  of  the  priestly  function  and 
power  by  mortal  sin — to  the  needlessness  of  auricular 
confession — to  the  unlawfulness  of  temporal  posses- 
sions held  by  the  clergy — and  to  the  derivation  of  the 
Pope's  authority  from  the  Emperor:  and  one  of  those 
articles  actually  contained  the  monstrous  assertion, 
that  God  ought  to  obey  the  devil !  The  fourteen  erro- 
neous propositions,  in  substance,  maintained  that  it 
was  heretical  for  a  prelate,  to  excommunicate  any  one 
without  knowing  him  to  be  already  excommunicated 
by  God,  and  treasonable  to  excommunicate  one  who  has 
appealed  to  the  King ;  that  the  Gospel  may  be  preach- 
ed without  license  from  Pope  or  prelate — that  tithes 
are  purely  eleemosynary — that  delinquent  priests  may 
be  stripped  of  their  endowments  by  the  secular  power 
— that  to  give  alms  to  the  friars  is  an  excommunica- 
ble  offence — and  that  the  religious  Orders,  whether 
endowed  or  mendicant,  are  sinful  and  unchristian. 

Instructions  were  speedily  dispatched  to  the  bishops 
of  London  and  of  Lincoln,   enjoining 
them  rigorously  to  suppress  the  dissemi-  fonhTsuppre* 
nation  of  these  doctrines:  and,  by  the  sum  of  WicliP* 
latter  of  these  prelates,  letters  mandatory  dc 

*  These  conclusions  .may  be  seen  in  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  157,  15^ 
together  with  the  signatures  of  the  parties  who  condemned  them. 


240  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

were  immediately  issued,  charging  with  the  execution 
of  the  decree,  not  only  the  abbots  and  priors,  but  .ill 
the  clergy,  and  ecclesiastical  functionaries  through- 
out the  archdeaconry  of  Leicester,  within  which  the 
rectory  of  Lutterworth  is  situated ;  so  that  the  Re- 
former was,  in  all  probability,  personally  visited  with 
these  paternal  admonitions.  Similar  instructions 
were  forwarded  by  the  archbishop  to  one  Peter  Stokes, 
a  zealous  Carmelite  of  Oxford,  requiring  him  diligently 
to  publish  the  decisions  of  the  Svnod  throughout  the 
University.  And,  in  order  that  trie  crusade  might  be 
conducted  with  all  impressive  solemnity,  it  was  ap- 
pointed that,  at  the  ensuing  Whitsuntide,  the  devotion 
of  the  metropolis  should  be  awakened  by  a  religious 
procession  to  St.  Paul's.  On  the  day  fixed,  a  long 
train,  both  of  ecclesiastics  and  laymen,  was  seen 
moving  bare-footed,  towards  the  cathedral;  and  on 
their  arrival  there,  the  pulpit  was  mounted  by  a  Car- 
melite friar,  who  spoke  to  the  astonished  multitude 
of  the  perils  of  the  Church,  of  the  virulence  of  her 
enemies,  and  of  the  duty  incumbent,  in  such  a  crisis, 
on  all  her  faithful  children.  These  vigorous  measures 
of  the  primate  were  abundantly  seconded  by  the  zeal 
of  the  spiritual  lords  of  Parliament,  who  united  in  a 
Petition  of  the  Pet^^on  tnat  a  remedy  might  be  provi- 
spiritual  °  lords  ded  against  the  innumerable  errors  and 
against  the  Loi-  impieties  of  the  Lollards.*  The  doc- 
trines complained  of  in  addition  to  those 
which  have  been  already  stated,  were, — that  Urban 
VI.  is  the  son  of  Anti-Christ,  and  that  there  hath 
been  no  true  Pope  since  the  days  of  St.  Silvester — 
that  they  who  trust  in  the  Pope's  indulgences  are  ac- 
cursed, and  that  none  are  obliged  to  obey  his  canons 
decretal — that  the  worship  of  images  is  idolatrous 
and  execrable — that  pictures  of  the  Holy  Trinity  are 

*  It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  detain  the  reader  with  a  dissertation 
on  the  origin  of  this  term,  here  applied  to  the  followers  of  Wiclif.  Every 
thing  that  can  be  collected  on  the  subject  may  be  found  in  Mosheirn,  vol. 
iii.  p.  355-35a 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  241 

not  to  be  endured— that  Saints  are  not  to  be  suppli- 
cated" for  their  intercession — that  priests  and  dea- 
cons are  bound  by  their  orders  to  preach,  although 
they  have  no  cure  of  souls — that  the  clergy  who  do 
not  minister  the  sacraments  are  to  be  removed — and 
lastly,  in  this  long  list  of  heresies  and  errors,  that 
"  ecclesiastical  men  ought  not  to  ride  on  such  great 
horses,  nor  use  so  large  jewels,  precious  garments,  or 
delicate  entertainments,  but  to  renounce  them  all, 
and  give  them  to  the  poor,  walking  on  foot,  and  taking 
staves  in  their  hands,  to  take  on  them  the  appearance 
of  poor  men,  giving  others  the  benefit  of  their  ex- 
ample." 

This  application  was  attended  with  Royal  Ordin. 
one  very  remarkable  consequence.  It  ance,  empower- 
produced  a  Royal  Ordinance,  which,—  j"g  arresl^and 
after  reciting  the  activity  and  audacity  imprison  the 
with  which  notorious  and  pernicious  er-  ^edoar:ne°f 
rors  were  circulated,  by  evil  persons, 
under  dissimulation  of  great  holiness,  preaching  in 
churches,  churchyards,  markets,  fairs,  and  other  open 
places,  without  the  license  of  the  ordinary, — empow- 
ers the  sheriffs  of  counties  to  arrest  such  preachers 
and  their  abettors,  and  to  detain  them  in  prison,  until 
they  should  justify  themselves  according  to  law,  and 
reason  of  Holy  Church.*  This  document,  it  should 
be  observed,  was  altogether  destitute  of  Thig  Ordinance 
the  force  of  law ;  for  it  contains  no  inti-  introduced  into 
mation  whatever,  of  the  assent  either  of  R^'^aSSS 
Lords  or  Commons.  It,  nevertheless,  wiXoattbccon- 
was  introduced  into  the  Parliament  Roll,  s<rnt  of  Lords  or 
amon^  the  statutes  of  the  year ;  and  has  ' 
the  distinction  of  being  the  first  penal  enactment 
on  our  Statute  Book,  against  heretical  pravity  of 
opinion.  In  the  next  Parliament,  indeed,  the  Com- 
mons declared,  that  it  had  been  passed  without  their 
assent  or  concurrence,  and  prayed  that  it  might  be 

*  The  document  is  given  by  Fox.    See  Wordsworth's  Eccl.  Biog.  vol. 
i.  p.  62, 63. 


242  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

annulledy  as  it  never  was  their  intent  to  bind  them- 
selves to  the  bishops,  more  than  their  ancestor*  had 
been  bound  in  times  past.  But  though  the  King  agreed 
to  their  petition,  this  spurious  statute  "  still  remains 
among  our  laws,  unrepealed,  except  by  desuetude, 
and  by  inference  from  acts  of  much  later  times."* 

Proceedings  Armed  with  this  formidable,  but  most 
of  the  Primate  unlawful  power,  the  Primate  assumed 
JfwcSfs^oF  ll?e  title  °*  Inquisitor  of  Heretical  Pra- 
lowers.  vity  throughout  the  whole  province  of 

Canterbury;  and  immediately  directed 
his  attention  to  the  extirpation  of  heresy  from  the 
University  of  Oxford.  The  Sessions,  at  the  Grey 
Friars,  were  accordingly  resumed.  The  most  per- 
emptory instructions  were  issued  to  the  Chancellor 
ef  Oxford,  Robert  Rigge,  commanding  him  to  suppress 
all  attendance  on  the  preaching  of  certain  persons, 
vehemently  and  notoriously  suspected  of  heresy, 
naming',  particularly,  John  Wiclif,  and  several  of  his 
followers,  Hereford,  Repingdon,  Ashton,  and  Redman. 
And  as  the  chancellor  himself  had  recently  manifested 
a  disposition  to  favour  some  of  the  objectionable  doc- 
trines, he  received  from  the  Archbishop  a  reiterated 
and  solemn  injunction,  to  abstain  from  all  interfe- 
rence with  the  proceedings  of  those  divines,  who 
had  been  appointed  to  inquire  and  report  respecting 
the  state  of  religious  opinion  at  Oxford.  For  the  rest 
of  their  session  the  Synod  were  occupied  with  the 
cases  of  the  individuals  above  named  ;f  but  it  is 
Wiclif  himself  somewhat  remarkable,  that  Wiclif  him-- 
not  summoned  self  was,  on  this  occasion,  suffered  to 
bisfho6theAlCh  remam  unmolested,  while  his  friends 

were  exposed  to  all  the  bitter  conse- 
quences of  their  activity  in  the  promulgation  of  his 
principles.  This  may,  perhaps,  be  accounted  for  by 
the  circumstance  of  his  having  declared  his  resolu- 

*  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  vol.  iii.  p.  132,  133.  Fox,  in  Wordsworth's 
Eccl.  Biog.  vol.  i.  p.  63. 

t  The  proceedings  against  them  maybe  found  in  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii. 
p.  158—169. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  243 

tion  to  appeal  to  the  Crown :  for,  however  disputable 
might  be  the  regularity  of  such  an  appeal,  it  might 
be  thought  scarcely  respectful  to  the  Royal  authority, 
wholly  to  disregard  it.  It  has  also  been  conjectured, 
that  Wiclif 's  doctrinal  heresies  had  not  Posslbly  8tiH 
entirely  deprived  him  of  the  favour  of  protected  by  the 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  an  antagonist  DukeofLancas- 
too  powerful  to  be  rashly  encountered, 
even  by  the  high-born  and  inflexible  Archbishop. 
The  thunders  which  were  echoing  round  him,  were, 
however,  unable  to  silence  or  intimidate  the  Reformer. 
That  his  voice  was  lifted  up,  among  his  own  people, 
against  the  recent  attempts  to  summon  the  powers 
of  the  State  in  aid  of  the  authorities  of  the  Church, 
seems  evident  from  the  language  of  one  of  his  paro- 
chial homilies,  in  all  probability  delivered  about  this 
period.  He  is  speaking  of  the  entombment  of  Christ, 
and  of  the  abortive  devices  by  which  the  priesthood 
Inspired  to  prevent  his  resurrection :  and  these  des- 
perate expedients  he  produces,  as  illustrative  of  the 
attempts  of  the  prelates  to  suppress  the  revival  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.  "  Even  thus,"  he  exclaims,  "  do 
our  high  priests ;  lest  God's  law,  after  all  they  have 
done,  should  be  quickened.  Therefore  make  they 
statutes,  stable  as  a  rock;  and  they  obtain  grace  of 
knights  to  confirm  them  ;  and  this  they  well  mark 
with  the  witness  of  lords  :  and  all,  lest  the  truth  of 
God's  Law,  hid  in  the  sepulchre,  should  break  out,  to 
the  knowing  of  the  common  people.  0  Christ !  Thy 
Law  is  hidden  thus ;  when  wilt  Thou  send  Thine 
Angel  to  remove  the  stone,  and  shew  Thy  truth  unto 
thy  flock  ?  Well  I  know  that  knights  have  taken  gold 
in  this  case,  to  help  that  thy  Law  may  be  thus  hid, 
and  Thine  ordinances  consumed  :  but  well  I  know 
that,  at  the  day  of  doom,  it  shall  be  manifest,  and 
even  before,  when  Thou  arisest  against  all  thine 


MS.  Horn.  Bib.  Reg.  quoted  by  -Vaughan,  vol.  ii.  p.  96. 


244  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

But  it  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  Wiclif,  who 
had  proclaimed,  in  the  face  of  the  world,  his  resolu- 
tion to  appeal  to  Caesar,  would  content  himself  with 
an  appeal  to  his  parishioners.  In  conformity  with  his 
Wk-iifs  com  declaration,  ™  tne  following  November, 
plaint  to  the  1382,  he  presented  his  complaint,  which 
King  and  Par-  was  addressed  not  to  the  Crown  only, 
but  to  the  King  and  Parliament.*  On  a 
perusal  of  this  paper,  it  will  appear  evident  that  he 
seized  the  opportunity,  thus  afforded  him,  of  bringing 
before  the  Legislature,  not  merely  the  sacramental 
question,  but  nearly  the  whole  substance  of  the 
cause,  which  it  had  been  the  work  of  his  life  to 
advocate  and  support.  He  divides  his  Gravamina 
into  four  main  articles.  The  first  of  these  exposes 
the  absurdity  of  maintaining  that  a  rule  of  religious 
life  can  be  laid  down  by  man,  more  perfect  than  that 
which  is  delivered  to  us  by  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
Apostles ;  and  he  thus  strikes  at  the  very  root  of  the 
authority  and  influence,  claimed,  in  that  age,  by  those 
various  religious  Orders,  to  which  nearly  all  the  re- 
verence of  the  Christian  world  v/as  then  transferred. 
The  second  enlarges  on  the  power  of  the  secular 
magistrate  over  the  temporal  endowments  of  the 
Church;  in  opposition  to  the  doctrine,  then  very 
generally  held,  and  recently  affirmed  by  certain  friars 
at  Coventry,  that  the  possessions  of  tne  clergy  were 
absolutely  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State,  and 
that  to  maintain  the  contrary,  was  damnably  erro- 
neous and  heretical.  In  the  third  article,  he  adverts, 
certainly  in  very  unmeasured  language,  to  what  has 
been  represented  by  some  as  one  of  his  favourite  doc- 
trines, viz.,  that  every  thing  enjoyed  by  the  clergy, 

*  This  document  is  in  print.  It  is  entitled,  "  A  complaint  of  John 
Wyclif,  exhibited  to  the  King  and  Parliament."  It  is  not  always  to  be 
met  with  separately.  The  copy  consulted  by  me  is  to  be  found  in  a 
volume  of  Tracts,  in  the  public  Library  of  Cambridge,  (Ff.  14.  8.,)  to- 
gether with  Wiclif  s  Treatise  against  the  Orders  of  Friars,  (which  was 
published  in  the  following  year,  1383,}— Dr.  James's  Apologie  for  John 
Wiclif,— and  several  other  pieces  of  various  dates. 


LIFE   OF   WICLiy.  246 

n&ore  than  may  be  needful  for  the  most  moderate  ne- 
cessities of  nature,  is  nothing  better  than  "  theft,  ra- 
pine,  and  sacrilege ;"  and  that  if  the  prelates  and 
priests  be  infected  with  the  sins  of  idolatry,  of  covet- 
ousness,  of  pride,  simony,  man-quelling,  gluttony, 
drunkenness,  and  lechery,  they  thereby  incur,  accord- 
ing to  God's  law,  the  forfeiture  of  their  tithes  and 
offerings ;  which,  in  that  case,  may  lawfully  be  given 
to  poor  and  needy  men.  The  fourth  article  is  the 
only  one  in  this  paper,  in  which  he  adverts  to  the 
question,  respecting  which  he  had  declared,  at  Ox*- 
ford,  his  determination  to  make  this  appeal ;  namely, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist :  and  it  is  remarkable, 
that,  on  this  point,  he  abstains  from  all  diffuseness 
either  of  statement  or  of  argument.  He  contents 
himself  with  simply  desiring,  that  "  Christ's  teaching 
and  beleave  of  the  sacrament  of  His  own  body,  that 
is  plainly  taught  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  in  Gos- 
pels and  Pistles,  may  be  taught  openlie  in  churches 
of  Christian  people  ;  the  contrarie  teaching,  and  false 
believe  being  brought  up  by  cursed  hypocrites,  and 
heretics,  and  worldly  priests,  unkenning  in  God's 
law ;  which  seem  that  they  are  Apostles  of  Christ, 
but  are  fools ! "  He  had,  no  doubt,  the  sagacity  to 
perceive,  that  an  elaborate  exhibition  of  the  merits 
of  this  question,  would  involve  the  necessity  of  such 
profound  research,  and  metaphysical  discussion,  as 
would  be  quite  out  of  place  before  the  barons,  knights, 
and  burgesses  of  the  realm,  who  might  yet  be  fully 
qualified  to  estimate  the  more  popular  topics  upon 
which  he  had  been  enlarging.  His  " Complaint" 
closes  with  an  animated  protest  against  the  selfish- 
ness of  the  priesthood,  who,  he  says,  were  "  so  busie 
about  worldlie  occupation,  that  they  Petjtion  Of  the 
seemen  better  bayliffs,  or  reves,  than  Commons  a- 

ghostly  priests  of  Jesus  Christ."  This  gainst  the  Orii. 
*=>  /  "  ,.,  c  „  11,  nance  for  the 

appeal  was  speedily  followed  by  the  pe-  suppression  of 
,tition  of  the  Commons,  already  advert-  |™eous  doQ" 
£d  to,  protesting  against  the  Royal  Ordi- 
21* 


246  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

nance,  by  which  the  civil  authorities  were  converted 
into  instruments  to  be  wielded  by  the  hierarchy,  and 
employed  for  the  extirpation  of  heresy.  Respecting 
this  enactment,  they  complain,  as  we  have  seen,  that 
whatever  was  moved  therein,  was  without  their  as- 
sent ;  and  they,  accordingly,  require  its  abrogation. 
With  this  requisition,  the  King,  to  all  appearance, 
willingly  complied ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  unlawful 
enactment  had,  in  a  great  measure,  done  its  office. 
It  had  given  a  powerful  impulse  to  the  work  of  reli- 
gious persecution  ;  and,  notwithstanding  its  repeal,  it 
was  still  allowed  to  retain  its  place  on  the  records  of 
Parliament,  in  consequence,  as  some  have  imagined, 
of  the  sinister  practices  of  the  Archbishop.  But, 
however  that  may  be,  Wiclif  derived  but  little  bene- 
fit from  this  manifestation  of  displeasure  on  the 
part  of  the  Commons.  He  was  sum- 
moned to8Uan-  "p011^  to  answer  before  the  Convpca- 
ewer  before  the  tion,  at  Oxford,  respecting  the  opinions 
Convocation  at  expressed  in  the  Articles  of  his  "  Com- 
plaint ;"  and  the  doctrine  propounded  by 
him,  relative  to  the  Eucharist,  formed  the  most 
prominent  subject  of  inquisition.  The  integrity  and 
fortitude  of  Wiclif  were  now  put  to  a  much  severer 
test  than  any  to  which  they  had  yet  been  exposed. 
In  his  former  perils,  it  might  be  suggested  that  his 
courage  was  mainly  supported  by  his  secret  reliance 
on  the  Duke  of  Lancaster's  protection.  His  bitterest 
adversaries  were  now  deprived  of  the  comfort  of  that 
He  is  abandon-  insinuation.  The  Duke  of  Lancaster 
ed  by  the  Duke  openly  abandoned  him.*  His  illustrious 
of  Lancaster.  patron  (who  stooci  faithfully  by  him  so 
long  as  he  was  engaged  in  a  conflict  with  the  open. 

*  The  language  of  the  Sudbury  Register  (as  we  have  seen  above)  is 

"Post  appellationem advenit  Dux  Lancostriae prohibens  quod 

de  CcBtero  non  loqueretur  de  ista  materia."  Wilk.  Con.  p.  171.  But  I 
am  not  altogether  certain,  whether  this  means  that  the  Duke  came  to 
Wiclif  for  this  purpose,  after  he  proclaimed,  at  Oxford,  his  resolution  to 
appeal;  or,  not  till  after  he  had  actually  presented  his  complaint  to  the 
King  and  Parliament :  most  probably  the  former. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  247 

iniquities  of  the  Papacy,)  refused  to  attend  him  into 
these  mysterious  regions  of  theological  debate.  He 
was  unwilling  to  encounter  the  wrath  of  the  hierar- 
chy, for  the  sake  of  barren  questions  relative  to  faith 
or  doctrine.  On  this  occasion,  therefore,  it  may  be 
fairly  said  of  Wiclif,  that  "  no  man  stood  with  him, 
but  all  forsook  him."  The  displeasure  of  his  patron, 
however,  was  as  powerless  with  him,  as  the  thunders 
of  his  spiritual  adversaries ;  and  the  fidelity  and 
courage  Avith  which  he  acquitted  himself  in  this  hour 
of  peril,  may  be  known  from  the  words  of  his  ene- 
mies themselves.  According  to  their  account,  he 
produced  a  confession,  containing,  sub-  ^ciif  j^. 
stantially,  all  his  former  errors ;  and,  tains  his  opi- 
like  an  incorrigible  heretic,  refuted  all  nions* 
the  doctors  of  the  Second  Millenary,  on  the  question 
of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar ;  affirming  that,  with 
the  exception  of  Berengarius,  they  were  involved  in 
error ;  nay,  that  Satan  was  loosed,  and  had  put  forth 
his  power,  in  the  person  of  the  Master  of  the  Sen- 
tences, and  of  all  who  had  preached  the  Catholic 
faith  herein.* 

It  must  not,  however,  be  dissembled,  that  one  his- 
torian has  given  a  very  different  aspect  to  this  por- 
tion of  Wiclif 's  history.  He  maintains  that  hitherto 
Wiclif  had  relied  solely  on  the  protection  of  the  duke, 
and  that  nothing  but  his  patronage  had  saved  the 
heretic  and  his  adherents  from  ignominy  and  de- 
struction ;  that  when  he  was  called  upon  to  answer 
for  his  perversions,  "  he  instantly  laid  aside  his  auda- 
cious bearing,  put  on  the  breastplate  of  dotage,  at- 
tempted to  disclaim  his  extravagant  and  fantastic 

* "  Incepit  confessionem  quandam  facere,  in  qua  continebatur 

omnis  error  pristinus,  (sed  secretius  sub  velamine  vario  verborum)  in 
qua  dixit  suum  conceptum,  et  nisus  est  suam  sententiam  probare.  Sed, 
velut  haereticus  pertinax,  reputavit  omnes  doctores  de  Secundo  Mille- 
nario,  in  materia  de  Sacramento  altaris ;  et  dixit  omnes  errasse  praeter 

Berengarium Dixit  patam  Sathanam  solutum,  et  potestatem 

habere"  in  Magistro  Sententiarum,  et  in  omnibus,  qui  fidem  Catholicam 
-praedicaverunu"  Sudbury  Register,  in  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  171. 


248  LIFE   OF   WICUF. 

errors,,  and  protested  that  the  follies  he  was  called 
upon  to  answer  for,  were  basely  and  falsely  ascribed 
to  him  by  the  malicious  ingenuity  of  his  enemies.'** 
This  calumny  has  been  so  frequently  repeated,  that, 
to  the  present  hour,  there  arc  many  who,  while  they 
are  disposed  io  honour  and  venerate  his  memory,  yet 
complain  that  a  mist  of  suspicion  still  hangs  over 
this  passage  of  his  life,  and  impairs  the  clearness  of 
their  confidence  in  his  integrity.  That  our  readers 
may  be  enabled  to  judge  of  these  imputations  of  du- 
,  .  plicity,  it  will  be  proper  to  call  their  at- 

o>enSons,one  tention  to  the  two  written  confessions, 
in  English,'  the  one  in  English,  the  other  in  Latin, 
pther  m  Latm.  whjch  contain  the  substance  of  his  de- 
fence before  the  convocation  at  Oxford, 
flis  English  con-  His  confession  in  English  is  a  concise, 
Assign.  an(j  tolerably  perspicuous  document; 

framed  as  it  would  seem,  with  a  view  to  convey  his 
sentiments  to  the  popular  apprehension,  and  accord- 
ingly weeded  from  the  subtlety  of  scholastic  distinc- 
tions, In  this  paper  he  affirms,  that  the  sacrament 
of  the  altar  is  very  God's  body  in  form  of  bread ;  and 
that  if  it  be  broken  into  three  parts,  or  into  a  thou- 
sand, every  one  of  these  is  the  same  God's  body :  and 
}ie  adds,  that  it  is  heresy  to  believe  that  this  sacra- 
ment is  £od's  body,  and  no  bread,  since  in  truth,  it  is 
froth  together  ;  in  its  own  nature  it  is  very  bread ;  but 
pacramentally,  it  is  the  body  of  Christ.  And  he  scru* 
pies  not  to  affirm  his  belief  that  the  earth  trembled, 
when  the  council  was  held  at  the  Grey  Friars  in 
London,  in  testimony  of  God's  anger  at  the  heresies 
maintained  by  his  judges  in  that  assembly.  Suck 
will  be  found  to  be  the  substance  of  this  confession  ;f 
and  what  infatuation  could  have  enabled  Knighton 
to  find  in  this  document  a  disclaimer  of  Wiclif 's 
opinions,  it  is  beyond  all  ordinary  penetration  to 
/discover ,  In  the  spirit  of  it,  most  assuredly,  there  is 

*  Knighton,  p.  2647. 

t  It  ie  printed  in  Le>yis,  c.  vi.  p.  102—  KM,  from  Knighton  2649,  2650. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  249 

nothing  which  savours  of  cowardice  :  for  he  tells  his 
inquisitors  to  their  face,  that  their  perversions  were 
so  monstrous  as  to  call  down  sensible  tokens  of  the 
divine  displeasure.  In  the  letter  of  it,  there  is  no- 
thing to  arraign  him  of  duplicity ;  for  the  doctrine 
here  maintained,  is,  in  fact,  no  other  than  that  which 
he  had  uniformly  asserted,  both  before  the  University 
at  Oxford,  and  before  his  people  at  Lutlerworth.  If 
it  be  urged  that  there  is  inconsistency  on  the  face  of 
this  paper,  since  it  affirms,  in  one  part,  that  the 
sacrament  is  Christ's  body  verily,  and  in  another, 
that  it  is  so  only  sacramentally ,  or  spiritually, — the 
obvious  answer  is,  that  if  this  be  an  inconsistency,  it 
is  one  which  he  had  in  common  with  multitudes 
who  spoke  or  wrote  on  the  subject,  ages  before  the 
transubstantiating  theory  was  ever  heard  of:  nay, 
he  may  almost  be  said  to  have  it,  in  common  with 
our  own  Reformers,  whose  catechism  declares  that 
the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  verily  and  indeed 
taken  by  the  faithful  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  How 
these  expressions  are  to  be  reconciled,  is  a  question 
totally  distinct.  But  nothing  can  be  more  certain 
than  the  fact  that  they  have  been  considered  as  capa- 
ble of  reconcilia  tion  by  numbers  who  never  dreamed 
of  a  corporeal  and  local  presence ;  and  if  so,  it  is 
extravagant  to  produce  this  language,  as  a  proof  of 
Wiclif's  timidity  and  vacillation.  The  assertion 
that  the  body  of  Christ,  in  its  full  integrity,  is  present 
in  every  fragment  into  which  the  elements  may  be 
divided,  is,  at  first  sight,  somewhat  more  perplexing. 
The  perplexity,  however,  will  vanish,  when  we  find 
that  such,  very  nearly,  was  the  language  held  even 
by  the  Church  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  forefathers, — a 
Church  which,  beyond  dispute,  was,  on  this  point, 
free  from  superstitious  pravity.  Without  any  con- 
troversy to  maintain, — without  any  inquisitors  to 
propitiate, — the  following  is  the  manner  in  which 
the  author  of  the  Saxon  homily,  above  adverted  to, 
expresses  himself  respecting  the  sacrament  of  the 


260  I/IFE    OF   WICLIF» 

altar i  "The  housell  is  corruptible,  and  divided  into 
sundry  parts,  cut  by  the  teeth,  and  sent  into  the 
jstomach ;  nevertheless,  after  ghostly  might,  it  is  all 
in  every  part.  Many  receive  that  holy  body ;  and 
yet  it  is  so,  all  in  every  part,  after  ghostly  mystery, 
though  some  take  less  (than  others,)  yet  is  there  no 
more  might  in  the  more  part  than  in  the  less;  because 
it  is  in  all  men  after  the  invisible  might."*  No  man 
who  has  perused  the  rest  of  the  discourse  can  doubt, 
for  a  moment,  that  the  words  above  recited  were 
designed  to  convey  this  sense,— namely,  that,  how- 
ever minutely  the  sacramental  elements  might  be 
divided,  each  portion  would  be  equally  efficacious  in 
conveying  to  the  respective  communicants,  the  bene- 
fits (whatever  they  might  be,)  attached  to  the  due 
receiving  of  Christ's  bo3y«  Why,  then,  is  a  more 
Popish  meaning  to  be  given  to  me  words  of  Wiclif, 
when  he  says  that,  whether  the  host  be  broken  into 
three  parts,  or  into  a  thousand,  of  each  part  it  may 
he  predicated,  with  equal  truth,  that  it  is  the  same 
body  of  Christ  ? 

His  Latm  con-  The  Latin  confession!  drawn  up  by 
fession.  Wiclif,  on  this  occasion,  is  very  mucn 

longer  than  the  English  one,  and  very  much  more 
defective  in  simplicity.  Being  composed  more  par- 
ticularly for  understandings  accustomed  to  the  worse 
than  Cretan  labyrinth  of  the  Schools,  it  has,  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  it,  the  appearance  of  a  series 
pf  metaphysical  and  scholastic  enigmas.  It  begins 
with  avowing,  distinctly,  that  the  body  of  Christ, 
(the  same  which  was  born  of  the  Virgin,  suffered  on 
the  cross>  was  buried,  rose  again,  ascended  into  hea- 
ven, and  now  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God)  is  truly 
and  really  the  sacramental  bread  and  consecrated 
host*  But  then  he  proceeds  to  qualify  this  statement 
by  the  confession,  that  he  dares  not  affirm  it  to  be 
the  body  of  Christ,  essentially,  substantially,  corporeally, 

*  Testimonie  of  Antiquitie,  p.  37,  38. 

t  This  Latin  Confession  is  printed  in  Lewis,  Appendix  No.  21,  p.  323 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  251 

Or  identically  ;  and  in  order  to  make  the  matter  quite, 
intelligible,  he  tells  us  that  there  are  three  modes  in 
which  the  body  of  our  Lord  may  exist  in  the  sacra* 
ment,  namely, — the  virtual,  the  spiritual,  and  the 
sacramental:  and  three  modes  more  true  and  real 
than  the  former,  in  which  it  may  exist  in  heaven, — 
the  substantial,  the  corporeal,  and  the  dimensional. 
Then  he  plunges  us  into  a  perfect  jungle  of  argu- 
mentation, in  which  I  profess  myself  unable  to  see 
my  own  way,  and  through  which  I,  therefore,  will  not 
attempt  to  conduct  the  reader.  He  emerges,  how- 
ever, at  precisely  the  same  conclusion  on  which  he 
takes  his  stand  in  his  English  confession ;  namely, 
that  the  venerable  sacrament  of  the  altar,  is,  naturally 
bread  and  wine,  sacramentally  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ;  and  that  the  notion,  that  the  Eucharist  is 
a  mere  accident  separated  from  its  proper  subject, 
involves  both  absurdity  and  heresy.  He  concludes, 
by  affirming  that  the  priests  of  Baal,  with  a  menda- 
city worthy  of  the  school  of  their  father,  magnify  the 
consecration  of  these  accidents,  reckon  all  masses  but 
their  own  unworthy  to  be  heard,  and  pronounce  unfit 
for  graduation  all  who  dissent  from  their  impostures: 
and  he  expresses  his  confidence,  that  truth  shall 
finally  overcome  them. 

Here  then,  it  may  a^ain  be  asked,  where  are  the 
proofs  of  Wiclif 's  defection  from  his  own  cause  ?  All 
the  mazes  and  doublings  of  his  scholastic  logic  con- 
duct him,  somehow  or  other,  to  the  very  position 
which  was  assailed  by  his  adversaries  :  a  position 
which  he  here  maintains  without  a  symptom  of  un- 
steadiness or  terror ;  for  he  openly  stigmatizes  'his 
persecutors  as  priests  of  Baal,  and  ministers  of  the 
father  of  lies !  From  the  charge  of  confusion,  and 
apparent  inconsistency,  it  may  perhaps  be  a  matter 
of  much  more  difficulty  to  vindicate  his  statements. 
Righteously  and  fully  to  estimate  his  merits  or  de- 
merits, in  this  particular,  would  probably  require  the 
application  of  a  mind,  as  familiarly  conversant  as  his 


252  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

own  with  the  barbarous  jargon  of  the  schools,  and 
with  the  modes  of  reasoning,  and  the  habits  of  thought, 
then  universally  prevalent  m  the  seminaries  of  learn- 
ing and  theology.  There  is,  also,  another  considera- 
tion, which  no  one  should,  for  a  moment,  lose  sight 
of,  who  would  profitably  and  impartially  examine  this, 
or  any  other  passage,  in  the  history  of  me  sacramental 
controversy.  From  a  very  early  period,  this  venera- 
ble rite  was  spoken  of  as  a  most  awful  mystery.* 
There  seems  to  have  prevailed,  in  all  aces,  an  extreme 
anxiety  to  avoid  every  mode  of  speech  which  might 
lower  its  dignity  and  solemnity  in  the  estimation 
of  the  people.  The  language  of  the  ancient  fathers 
bears  emphatic  testimony  to  the  existence  of  this 
feeling.  It  frequently  is  such,  as  to  identify  the  hal- 
lowed elements  with  the  sacrifice  they  represented.! 

*  In  the  liturgy  ascribed  to  St.  James,  the  sacramental  symhol§  are 


^  Ispovp- 

vfcr  Oela  KCU  Qetl  iroios  x&P1*'  &*>P°v  i^ir^pio'v  tytfitov  /uv/jatj'  6o\1j- 
\arpcia-  ev\oyia-  £.i)\apiaTta-  re\£rf]  re\CToJv.  Dominicum;  hoetia 
hostiarum ;  rnysterium  mysteriorum. 

The  disposition  of  Christians,  of  almost  every  sect,  to  see  in  the  Eucha- 
rist all  that  was  awful  and  precious,  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  J.  Taylor : 
— "The  beholders  of  a  dove  walking  the  sunshine,  as  they  stand  in  seve- 
ral aspects  and  distances,  some  see  red,  and  others  purple,  others  per- 
ceive nothing  but  green,  but  all  allow  and  love  the  beauties :  so  do  the 
several  forms  of  Christians,  as  they  are  instructed  by  their  first  teachers, 
or  their  own  experience,  conducted  by  their  fancy  and  proper  principles, 
look  upon  these  glorious  mysteries,  some  as  virtually  containing  the 
reward  of  obedience  ;  some  as  solemnities  of  thanksgiving,  and  records 
of  blessing ;  some  as  the  objective  increase  of  faith ;  others  as  sacramental 
participations  of  Christ ;  others  as  acts  and  instruments  of  natural  union ; 
yet  all  affirm  some  great  thing  or  other  of  it,  and,  by  iheir  very  differences, 
confess  the  immensity  of  the  glory." 

t  "  When  you  see  this  body  before  you,"  says  the  most  eloquent  of  the 
Greek  Fathers,  in  speaking  of  the  sacred  elements,  "  say  to  yourself,  this 
is  the  body  which  was  nailed  to  the  cross,  but  which  death  could  not 
confine.  It  was  this  which  the  sun  beheld  fixed  to  the  accursed  tree, 
and  instantly  veiled  his  light.  It  was  this  that  rent  the  veil,  and  burst  the 
rocks,  and  cJnvulsed  the  earth.  Do  you  wish  to  comprehend  the  full  ex- 
tent of  its  powers  ?  Ask  the  daughter  of  affliction  wno  touched  the  hem 
of  the  garment  that  encircled  it.  Ask  the  sea  which  bore  this  body  on  the 
surface.  Ask  Satan  himself—'  What  has  inflicted  onthee  this  incurable 
wound  ?  What  has  robbed  thee  of  thy  strength  ?  Whence  these  chains 
and  this  captivity  ?'  He  will  answer,  that  this  crucified  body  ie  the  foe 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  253 

When  speaking  with  didactic  caution,  they  would 
carefully  separate  the  symbol  from  the  object  signi- 
fied ;  but  when  endeavouring  to  elevate  the  devotion 
of  their  congregations,  they  often  forgot  this  watch- 
fulness and  discretion,  and  expressed  themselves  in 
terms  which,  frequently  repeated,  would  naturally 
familiarize  the  hearers  with  the  notion,  that  the  body 
of  our  Saviour  was  actually  and  locally  present,  in  the 
consecrated  bread  and  wine;  and  thus  it  was,  that 
the  impassioned  eloquence  of  the  preachers  grew, 
imperceptibly,  into  the  doctrine  of  the  Church.  The 
consequences  of  this  may  easily  be  imagined.  In  the 
process  of  time,  it  imposed  upon  divines  the  hopeless 
task  of  reconciling  the  language  of  rhetoric  with  that 
of  metaphysics.  They  dreaded  to  speak  of  the  pre- 
sence of  Christ's  body  in  the  sacrament,  as  otherwise 
than  real,  lest  they  should  thereby  degrade  that  hea- 
venly mystery  ;  and  yet  they  felt  themselves  compel- 
led to  acknowledge,  almost  in  the  same  breath,  that 
this  presence  was  but  figurative  and  spiritual,  lest 
they  should  seem  to  contend  for  a  presence  strictly 
local  and  corporeal.  Hence  the  inextricable  confu- 
sion of  this  department  of  the  ancient  theology  of 

that  hath  broken  his  weapons,  and  hath  bruised  his  head,  and  hath  ex- 
posed to  shame  and  defeat  the  principalities  and  powers  of  his  kingdom. 
Ask  Death,  and  say  unto  him, — 'How  hast  thou  been  rifled  of  thy  sting, 
and  how  hath  thy  victory  been  wrested  irom  thee  1  How  is  it  that  thou 
hast  become  the  laughing-stock  of  youths  and  maidens — thou  that  wast  the 
terror  both  of  the  ungodly  and  the  righteous?'  They  will  both  answer  by 
accusing  this  mysterious  body  of  their  discomfiture  and  disgrace.  For 
when  this  body  was  crucified,  then  the  dead  arose — and  the  prison  of  the 
grave  was  burst  open— and  the  tenants  of  the  tomb  were  set  free — and  the 
warders  of  hell  were  terror-stricken."  And,  again,  still  more  strongly— 
*'Behold,  I  shew  you  here,  not  angels,  nor  archangels,  nor  the  heaven  of 
heavens, — but  the  blaster  of  all  these !  Behold — the  most  precious  of  all 
things  is  exposed  to  your  gaze  ; — and,  not  only  so,  but  you  are  allowed  to 
touch  it,  and  to  handle  it. ;  nay — not  merely  to  touch  it,  but  actually  to 
feed  upon  it."— Chrysost.  Horn,  xxliii.  in  1  Cor.  vol.  x.  p.  217—219.  Ed. 
Bened. 

This  sort  of  fervid  and  poetical  theology,  was  well  fitted  to  prepare  the 
glowing  imagination  of  the  Greeks  and  Asiatics,  for  the  highest  mysteries 
of  the  sacramental  doctrine ;  and  the  only  wonder  is,  that  the  tenet  of 
transubstantiation  should  have  first  made  its  appearance  in  the  Western, 
rather  than  in  the  Eastern  Church. 
22 


254  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

Europe.  Hence  the  darkness  and  perplexity  of  this 
confession  of  Wiclif.  There  can  be  very  little  doubt 
that  many  sincere,  and  many  ,  ;ofound  thinkers, 
found  no  refuge  from  the  difficulties  which  had 
gat  In-red  round  the  question,  but  in  the  bottomless 
pit  of  Transubstantiation.  Into  this  abyss,  however, 
Wiclif  refused  to  plunge.  Urged  as  he  was  to  the 
eJge  of  the  gulf  by  his  adversaries,  he  always  stub- 
bornly wheeled  round  againr  and  buried  himself  once 
more  in  the  labyrinth  of  his  scholastic  metaphysics. 
The  fault  of  his  Latin  confession,  accordingly,  is, — 
not  that  it  contains  a  recantation  of  his  opinions, — 
but,  that  it  bristles  all  over  with  the  thorns  and  bram- 
bles which  grew  up  naturally  in  the  wilderness 
through  which  he  wandered.  And,  whatever  may 
be  the  entanglement  of  his  logic,  he  contrives  to 
scramble  through  it  to  the  very  point,  against  which 
the  assaults  of  his  antagonists  are  directed ;  and  when 
he  is  once  there,  he,  loudly  and  scornfully,  defies 
them  to  dislodge  him. 

That  his  Confessions  did  not,  in  the  estimation  of 
his  Inquisitors,  or  their  adherents,  amount  to  any 
thing  like  an  abandonment  of  his  principles,  may  be 
safely  concluded  from  the  fact,  that  he  was  assailed 
by  six  several  antagonists  immediately  after  their 
publication.*  It  may,  also,  be  inferred,  from  the 
result  of  the  proceedings  against  him.  His  judges, 
indeed,  did  not  consign  him  to  martyrdom.  The 
heretic  was,  now,  well  stricken  in  years ;  age  and  toil 
together  had  done  their  work  on  his  constitution ;  and 
a  few  winters  more  would  rid  the  Church  of  him  that 
troubled  her.  It  was  scarcely  worth  the  hazard  of 

Eopular  commotion  and  discontent,  to  light  up  the 
res  of  persecution  for  a  victim  whom  the  course  of 
nature  would  probably  soon  remove.     Besides,  nei- 
ther the  Church  nor  the  State  of  England  were  as  yet 
familiar  with  the  work  of  blood ;  and  it  might  have 

*  Wordsw.  Eccl.  Biogr.  vol,  i.  p.  49. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  255 

been  dangerous  to  begin  it  with  one  who  was  not 
only  venerable  for  his  years,  but  still  honoured  for  his 
labours  and  his  services.  Under  these  circumstances, 
it  would  be  a  sufficient  triumph  for  the  hierarchy  to 
separate  their  enemy  for  ever  from  the  most  illustri- 
ous scene  of  his  warfare ;  and  letters  were  accordingly 
obtained  from  the  King  which  condemned  him  to 
banishment  from  the  University  of  Oxford.  The  short 

remnant  of  his  days  was  passed  in  the 

f  -f  *  i_  j  j  •  •  "asses  tne  re- 
retirement  of  Lutterworth ;  and  was  divi-  mainder  of  his 
ded  between  the  discharge  of  his  pastoral  days  at  Lutter- 
care,  and  the  continued  toils  of  his  study.  worth- 
Neither  time  nor  infirmity  could  abate  the  fire  of  his 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  truth ;  and  to  the  very  last, 
he  laboured  by  his  writings  to  give  a  wider  diffusion 
to  his  principles. 

Somewhere  about  this  time  it  was  that        . 

-r-r-r-      "I  • /•  1  f  ,1  H.Q     18811111111011- 

Wiclif  received  a  summons  from  the  ed  by  the  Pope 
Pope,  Urban  VI.  commanding  him  to  to  appear  before 
appear  before  him  in  person,  and  there 
to  defend  himself  from  the  imputation  of  heretical 
doctrines.  His  answer  to  this  mandate  Hisanswer 
is  a  very  curious  document.  He  was  then 
suffering  from  paralysis,  and  was  thus  disabled  for 
so  formidable  a  journey.  In  his  reply,  however,  he 
does  not  content  himself  with  declining  to  obey  the 
the  citation ;  but  seizes  the  opportunity  of  offering  to 
the  Pontiff  much  salutary  and  unceremonious  advice. 
He  professes  his  joyful  readiness  to  give  account  of 
his  faith  to  all  true  men,  and  especially  to  the  Pope, 
whom  he  acknowledges  to  be  the  highest  Vicar  that 
Christ  has  on  earth ;  adding,  however,  that  his  great- 
ness is  not  to  be  estimated  by  his  worldly  pomp,  but 
by  his  more  eminent  conformity  to  the  law  of  Christ ; 
who,  while  on  earth,  was  the  poorest  of  men  "  both 
in  spirit  and  in  having."  It  was  therefore,  he  submit- 
ted, most  wholesome  counsel,  that  his  Holiness  should 
leave  his  worldly  lordship  to  worldly  lords,  and  move 
speedily  all  his  clerks  to  do  the  same;  and  if  this 


256  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

opinion  of  his  should  be  found  erroneous  he  was  wil- 
ling to  be  amended,  even  by  death,  if  it  were  needful. 
He  protests  that  if  he  might  travel  in  person,  he 
would  with  God's  will,  go  to  the  Pope ;  but  Christ 
had  " needed"  him  to  the  contrary;  and  to  Christ's 
will  it  became  both  him  and  the  Pope  to  submit, — un- 
less the  Pope  were  willing  to  set  up  openly  for  Anti- 
christ.* 

*  This  letter  is  to  be  found  in  Lewis,  Appendix,  No.  23.  p.  333. 

It  so  happens  that  Mr.  Soames's  Bampton  Lecture  for  1830,  did  not  fall 
in  my  way,  until  after  the  above  pages  had  been  sent  to  the  press.  I  should, 
otherwise,  have  gladly  seized  the  opportunity  of  acknowledging,  in  the 
proper  place,  the  obligations  conferred  on  our  Church  by  that  valuable 
writer,  in  his  "Inquiry  into  the  Doctrines  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church." 
It  is  in  his  seventh  sermon  that  Mr.  Soames  exhibits  "that  adamantine 
chain  of  testimonies,— extending  unbroken  from  Bede  to  the  Norman 
Conquest. — which  proves,  even  to  demonstration,  that  ancient  England 
was  taught  expressly  to  deny  the  leading  distinctive  doctrine  of  modern 
Rome;"— the  doctrine  which,  upwards  of  four  centuries  after  the  Con- 
quest, Wiclif  intrepidly  laboured  to  overthrow. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  257 

CHAPTER  VIE. 
1382—1384. 

Continued  labours  ofWiclifin  his  retirement — Crusade  for  Urban 
VI.  under  the  command  of  Spencer,  Bishop  of  Norwich— Its  fail- 
ure— Wiclif 's  "  Objections  to  the  Freres" — He  condemns  the  Cru- 
sade— His  opinions  respecting  the  lawfulness  of  wars — He  con- 
ceives his  life  to  be  in  danger  from  his  enemies — His  death — His 
character — Traditions  respecting  him  at  Lutterworth—His  pre- 
ferments not  inconsistent  with  his  notions  respecting  clerical  pos- 
sessions— Wiclif  nst  a  political  Churchman — Admirable  for  his 
personal  piety,  as  well  as  for  his  opposition  to  Romish  abuse — His 
unwearied  energy — Probable  effect  of  the  scholastic  discipline  on 
his  mind — alleged  coarseness  of  his  invectives — Comparison  of 
Wiclif  with  Luther — Prevalence  of  Widif's  doctrines  at  Oxford 
after  his  death — The  testimonial  of  the  university  in  honour  of 
his  memory,  in  1406 — Question  of  its  authenticity  considered — 
Persecution  of  Widif's  memory  by  the  Papal  writers — Prevalence 
of  his  opinions  in  Bohemia — His  remains  disinterred  by  a  decree 
ef  the  Council  of  Constance. 

THE  palsy  which  disabled  Wiclif  for  at-  c  tij^  k 
tendance  on  the  Pope,  was,  fortunately,  boura^nvidSF 
not  severe  enougu  10  suspend,  for  a  mo-  after  his  retire- 
ment,  the  laborious  exercise  of  his  men-  ment' 
tal  powers.  Nothing  can  well  be  more  surprising 
than  the  unweared  activity  with  which  he  continued 
to  assail,  from  the  retirement  of  his  parsonage,  the 
manifold  abuses  of  the  Ecclesiastical  system.  To 
write  completely  the  history  of  the  two  last  years  of 
his  life,  would,  in  fact,  be  to  enumerate  and  to  analyze 
a  long  series  of  pub.li cations,  following  each  other 
in  the  closest  order,  and  exhibiting  proofs  of  unex- 
hausted zeal  and  power.  Besides  his  ordinary  labours 
for  the  pulpit,  there  are  fourteen  or  fifteen  of  his  trea- 
tises^  several  of  them  among  the  most  important  of 
his  writings,  the  publication  of  which  may  safely  be 
assigned  to  this  very  period.  Whether  the  whole  of 
these  were  actually  composed  during  the  interval  in. 
22* 


258  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

question, — or  whether  they  were  partly  prepared  be- 
fore, and  then  wrought  up  and  finished, — it  is  now 
scarcely  possible  to  ascertain.  But  the  date  of  their 
appearance  before  the  world  seems  to  be  fixed  to  this 
time,  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt,  by  their  occasional 
allusion  to  preceding  circumstances  and  events.  The 
spectacle  they  present  to  us  is  singularly  interesting 
and  admirable.  They  set  before  us  the  example  of  a 
man  worn  down  by  a  life  of  toil  and  anxiety — smitten 
with  a  maladv  which  might  seem  to  command  a  ces- 
sation of  all  harassing  exertion — just  escaped  from 
the  very  jaws  of  destruction, — and  constantly  expect- 
ing, (as  the  tenor  of  his  latest  writings  seems  plainly 
to  intimate,)  that  Persecution  would  soon  be  ready  to 
do  her  worst  upon  him — and  yet  learning  no  lesson 
of  indolence  or  cowardice  from  these  perils  and  trou- 
bles. On  the  contrary,  his  energies  appeared,  if  any 
thing,  to  gather  strength  and  brightness,  as  the  sha- 
dows of  death  were  thickening  round  his  temples. 
Never,  perhaps,  since  the  commencement  of  his  war- 
fare, was  Wiclif  more  formidable,  than  during  the 
season  of  his  final  banishment  to  Lutterworth.  Never 
was  his  voice  more  loudly  raised  in  the  cause  of 
Scriptural  truth,  than  at  the  approach  of  that  hour 
which  was  to  silence  it  for  ever. 

We  have  seen  that,  on  a  former  occa- 
Crusade  in  sup-  sion,  the  danger  which  threatened  Wiclif 
port  of  Urban  and  his  followers  was  powerfully  divert- 
_"  'Sf  ed  by  the  grand  Papal  schism  which 
Spencer,  bishop  began  to  distract  the  attention  of  all 
of  Norwich.  Europe.  The  same  cause  of  confusion 
Btill  continued  in  unabated  operation;  and  at  this 
time  manifested  itself  in  a  mode  very  curiously  illus- 
trative of  the  spirit  of  the  age.  England  was,  at  that 
period,  the  leading  State  which  supported  the  claims 
of  Urban  VI.  to  the  Papacy,  in  opposition  to  those  of 
Clement;  and  the  manner  in  which  her  patronage 
was  exerted,  was  such  as  to  show,  that  the  principles 
of  religious  reformation,  however  vigorously  infused 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

by  Wiclif  and  his  adherents,  had  as  yet  but  very  im- 
perfectly mixed  themselves  with  the  moral  circula- 
tion of  the  English  people.  A  crusade  was  pro- 
claimed for  the  purpose  of  establishing  the  title  of 
the  rightful  Pontiff;  and,  the  cause  being  eminently 
sacred,  it  was  thought  that  an  ecclesiastic  was  un- 
questionably the  properest  person  to  conduct  it.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  individual  fixed  upon  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  British  forces  employed  on  this  expedi- 
tion was  Henry  Spencer,  the  youthful  Bishop  of 
Norwich  ;  a  man,  in  some  respects,  signally  qualified 
for  such  a  charge.  He  was  of  high  birth,  unim- 
peachable orthodoxy,  notorious  for  his  inflexible  de- 
votion to  the  interests  of  the  Church,  and  celebrated 
for  that  spirit  of  martial  enterprise  which,  in  those 
times,  was  regarded  as  no  ungraceful  accompaniment 
to  the  spiritual  function.  His  detestation  of  Lollard- 
ism  was  such  as  to  render  him  worthy  of  a  place  in 
the  commission  assembled  in  the  chamber  of  the 
Preaching  Friars,  and  rendered  for  ever  memorable 
by  the  earthquake  which  had  nearly  confounded  its 
proceedings.  His  martial  quality  had  found  an  op- 
portunity for  display  during  the  fearful  insurrection 
of  the  peasantry,  and  was  said  to  have  been  mainly 
instrumental  in  preserving  his  own  diocese  from  the 
dreadful  effects  of  that  commotion.  Instead  of  con- 
fining himself,  on  that  occasion,  to  a  warfare  whose 
weapons  were  not  carnal,  he  put  forth  the  arm  of  flesh 
with  undaunted  confidence  and  vigour.  The  spiritual 
guide  was  forgotten  in  the  feudal  baron ;  and,  at  the 
head  of  his  vassals,  the  adventurous  Prelate  taught 
u  the  ribald  multitude,"  (as  he  styled  them,)  to  res- 
pect the  laws,  which  the  supineness  or  the  panic  of 
the  government  had  exposed  to  most  disgraceful 
outrage.  There  is  something  almost  diverting  in  the 
description  of  this  bellipotent  Churchman,  given  by 
the  annalist,  who,  with  manifest  satisfaction,  records 
his  exploits.  He  is  represented  to  us  as  "  armed  to 
the  very  nails — grasping  his  lance  in  his  right-hand — 


LIFE   OF  WTCLIF. 


burying  his  spurs  in  the  flanks  of  his  charger — rush- 
ing with  the  lury  of  a  wild  boar  into  the  midst  of  the 
rascal  crowd,  and  there  dealing  confusion  and  havoc 
around  him,"  until  victory  declared  for  the  mailed 
functionary  of  sanctity  and  peace.*  Such  was  the  re- 
markable personage  entrusted  with  the  championship 
of  Urban  VI.  He  went  forth  to  the  adventure  armed 
with  all  the  might,  and  all  the  magic,  wherewith  the 
superstition  of  the  age  could  encircle  him.  A  public 
mandate  was  issued  by  the  Primate,!  calling  for  the 
prayers  of  the  faithful  on  behalf  of  an  enterprise, 
which  had  for  its  object  the  extermination  of  the 
heretics :  and,  (what  was  of  infinitely  greater  im- 
portance and  efficacy,)  "  marvellous  indulgences  "J 
were  placed  by  Urban  at  the  disposal  of  the  Bishop, 
which  enabled  him  to  collect  an  incredible  amount 
of  treasure  ;  towards  which,  the  faith  and  bounty  of 
the  female  sex  supplied  the  most  prodigal  contribu- 
tions. By  these  stupendous  absolutions,  both  the 
quick  and  the  dead  were  released  from  the  guilt  and 
the  punishment  of  sin,  provided  always  that  the 
liberality  of  the  living  was  fully  commensurate  to 
the  extent  of  the  benefit  conferred.  And  that  nothing 
might  be  wanting  to  stimulate  the  believers  to  pro- 
fusion it  was  fearlessly  affirmed  by  many  of  the 
Bishop's  commissaries,  that  angels  would  descend 
from  heaven,  at  their  word,  to  snatch  the  souls  of  the 
guilty  from  the  abodes  of  purgatory,  and  to  conduct 
them  without  delay  to  the  realms  of  bliss. §  It  would 
be  alien  from  the  purpose  of  the  present  work  to  in- 
troduce a  narrative  of  this  expedition.  It  must  be 
enough  to  say,  that  the  impetuous  Churchman  proved, 
after  all,  but  a  very  sorry  captain.  The  vulgar  attri- 
bute of  courage,  he  most  undoubtedly  possessed ;  but 
his  intrepidity  seems  to  have  been  wholly  unmixed 
with  any  higher  military  qualities ;  and  the  enterprise 

•  Walsingham,  p.  278,  279.  t  Wilk.  Cone.  p.  176,  177. 

J  ?cMirabiles  inoulgentias,"  &c.    Knight,  p,  2671. 
§  All  this  is  gravely  related  by  Knighton,  as  a  very  edifying  affair ! 
Knight.  2671. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  261 

had  precisely  that  termination  which  might  be  ex- 
pected from  the  rashness,  arrogance,  and  Failure  of  the 
obstinacy  of  its  commander.  After  crusade, 
spreading  carnage  and  devastation  through  various 
parts  of  Flanders,  the  crusaders  were  soon  compelled 
to  return,  rich  in  nothing  but  deeds  of  waste  and 
bloodshed ;  and  the  fiery  prelate  himself,  on  revisiting 
his  country,  was  greeted  with  the  universal  outcry 
of  public  scorn.* 

This  mad  adventure,  and  the  means  by  which  the 
sinews  of  its  warfare  were  supplied,  must  have  fur- 
nished Wiclif  with  mournful  proof  that  his  labours 
had  hitherto,  made  no  deep  impression  upon  the 
compact  and  solid  mass  of  the  national  superstitions. 
But  to  him,  dejection  and  despair  seem  to  have  been 
unknown.  He  was  always  prepared  to  work  like 
one  who  felt  that  he  was  toiling  for  future  ages.  The 
crusade  against  Clement  might  have  persuaded  a  less 
resolute  spirit  that  all  resistance  to  the  powers  of 
falsehood  were  vain  and  hopeless.  Wiclif  had  no 
ears  to  hear  such  treacherous  whisperings.  His 
spirit  was  powerfully  moved  within  him  at  this  fresh 
eruption  of  impiety ;  and  his  honest  indignation  was 
manifested  by  a  renewal  of  his  contest  with  the 
Mendicants :  for  the  Mendicants,  as  Wiclifa  «Ob. 
might  be  expected,  were  the  busiest  jections  to  the 
among  the  tribute-gatherers  for  the  en-  Freres." 
terprise  in  question.  Accordingly,  it  was  at  this 
period  that  he  put  forth  his  'tract,  entitled  "  Objec- 
tions to  the  Freres ;"  the  same  treatise  which  has 
been  already  noticed,  and  in  which,  under  fifty  com- 
pendious articles,  he  concentrates  and  sums  up  nearly 
all  the  censures  which  he  had  ever  advanced  against 
their  practices  and  opinions.  That  the  tract  in  ques- 
tion appeared  about  this  time,  is  rendered  certain,  by 
its  allusion  to  the  sacramental  controversy, — to  the 
Papal  schism, — and  to  the  war  in  Flanders,  as  an 

*  Froissart.    Walsingh. 


262  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

expedition,  the  only  object  of  which  was  "  to  make 
Christ's  Vicar  the  wealthiest  in  the  world."  In 
another  of  his  works  which  was  also  published  nearly 
at  the  same  period,  "  the  Sentence  of  the  Curse  Ex- 
He  condemns  pounded,"  he  makes  a  direct  attack  on 
the  Crusades.  fae  infatuation  of  the  Crusaders.  He 
there  complains  that  the  Pope  brings  "  the  seal  and 
banner  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  that  is  the  token  of 
peace,  mercy,  and  charity,  for  to  slee  all  Christen 
men,  for  love  of  twaie  false  priests,  that  ben  open 
Anti-Christs,  for  to  meynteyne  their  worldly  state, 
to  oppress  Christendom,  worse  than  Jews  weren 
against  holy  writ,  and  life  of  Christ  and  his  apostles." 
And  he  asks,  indignantly,  "  Why  wole  not  the  proud 
priest  of  Rome  grant  full  pardon  to  all  men  for  to 
live  in  peace,  and  charitie,  and  patience,  as  he  doth 
to  all  men  to  fight  and  slee  Christen  men  ?"*  The 
same  subject  is  introduced  into  his  treatise  on  the 
seven  deadly  sins ;  and  it  furnishes  him  with  an  oc- 
casion of  propounding  certain  eccentric  and  adventu- 
rous opinions  relative  to  the  practice  of  war.  The 
.  title  of  conquest  he  conceives  to  be  utterly 

ions  respecting  worthless  and  untenable,  unless  the  con- 
the  lawfulness  quest  itself  be  expressly  commanded  by 
the  Almighty ;  as  in  the  case  of  the 
tribes  of  Israel  when  they  seized  upon  the  land  of 
Canaan.  And,  even  so,  in  these  latter  days,  when 
sin  hath  wrought  the  forfeiture  of  any  kingdom, 
Christ,  as  the  rightful  Sovereign  of  ail  the  earth,  may, 
by  his  word,  deliver  that  kingdom  into  the  hands  of 
whom  he  will.  But  then  he  affirms,  that  it  is  not 
within  human  competency  to  pronounce  that  any 
such  forfeiture  hath  actually  been  incurred,  unless 
the  assailants  are  certified  thereof  by  a  revelation 
from  heaven.  A  very  different  doctrine,  he  allowed, 
was  held  by  the  supreme  Pontiff,  and  his  adherents, 
who  have  frequently  given  their  sanction  to  religious 

•  Lewis,  c.  vii.  p.  121. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  263 

"Wars  :*  but  it  was  always  to  be  kept  in  mind,  that 
St.  Peter  himself  was  liable  to  error ;  and  it  might, 
therefore,  fairly  be  surmised,  that  the  same  infirmity 
had  descended  to  his  successors  :  and  he  infers,  from 
the  whole  matter,  that  all  hostilities  undertaken  with- 
out a  special  injunction  from  the  God  of  battles,  are, 
under  the  Christian  dispensation,  as  indefensible,  as 
they  were  under  the  Jewish  theocracy.  Wars  of 
self-defence  fare  little  better,  in  his  judgment,  than 
wars  of  conquest  or  aggression.  Friends,  he  tells  us, 
have  been  withstood  by  angels,  and  righteous  men 
have  often  overcome  the  wicked :  but  in  neither  in- 
stance has  the  cause  been  committed  to  the  arbitre- 
ment  of  force.  Sometimes  the  law  of  the  land  will 
enable  us  to  resist  our  adversaries  ;  and,  at  all  times, 
men  of  the  Gospel,  by  the  spirit  of  patience  and 
of  peace,  have  been,  and  ever  may  be,  conquerors 
through  the  suffering  of  death.  How  the  quarrels  of 
nations  are  to  be  settled  upon  these  principles,  he 
does  not  proceed  to  instruct  us.  Possibly  he  might 
be  withheld  by  the  conviction,  that  it  would  be  to 
little  purpose  to  enlarge  further  upon  a  doctrine, 
which,  as  he  confesses,  he  well  knew  would  be  re- 
ceived with  general  scorn.  Contemptible  as"  it  was, 
however,  he  avers  that  men,  who  would  be  martyrs 
for  the  law  of  God,  would  hold  thereby  :  and  he  sar- 
castically adds,  that  the  knight  who  derives  his  hon- 
ours from  the  slaughter  of  his  fellow-creatures,  is 
frequently  outdone  by  the  hangman,  who  killeth  many 
more,  and  with  a  better  title. f 

Whatever  may  be  the  crudity  of  some  of  these 
positions,  it  is  obvious  that  he  who  insisted  on  them, 
would  be  prepared  to  give  no  quarter  to  the  iniquities 
of  this  Papal  crusade.  He  accordingly  returns,  re- 
peatedly, to  the  charge  against  it.  A  fighting  priest, 

*  "Such  wars,"  says  Fuller,  "increased  the  intrado  of  the  Pope's 
revenues.  Some  say  purgatory  fire  heateth  his  kitchen  :  they  may  add, 
the  holy  war  filled  his  pot,  if  hot  paid  for  all  his  second  course." — Holy 
War,  B.  v.  c.  12. 

t  MS.  Horn.  Bib.  Reg.  18.  b.  ix.  p.  109.  cited  by  Vaughan,  vol.  ii.  p.  211. 


264  LIFE    OF  WICLIF. 

he  describes  as  no  better  than  a  fiend,  stained  foul 
with  homicide.  The  friars,  indeed,  may  say  that 
bishops  can  fight  best  of  all  men,  and  that  the  work 
becomes  them  nobly,  since  they  are  lords  of  the  whole 
world.  Thus,  they  tell  us,  did  Maccabeus  fight;  and 
Christ  bade  his  disciples  sell  their  coats,  and  buy  them 
swords ;  but  whereto,  if  not  to  fight?  But  Christ,  he 
replies,  taught  not  his  apostles  to  fight  with  swords 
of  iron,  but  with  the  sword  of  God's  word,  which 
standeth  in  meekness  of  heart,  and  in  prudence  of 
tongue :  and  the  two  Popes  would  do  well  to  give 
heed  to  these  truths,  when  they  fight  with  each  other, 
with  the  most  blasphemous  leasings,  that  ever  issued 
out  of  hell.* 

He      r  neeivea         THat   WlcHf  W3S   fully    &Ware    °f  the 

his  life  to  be  in  danger  attendant  on  all  this  "  free-spoken 
danger  from  his  truth,"  seems  clear  from  various  passa- 
ges of  his  writings,  and,  more  especially, 
of  his  Trialogus,  which  was  produced  after  his  banish- 
ment from  Oxford,  and  in  which  it  is  plainly  inti- 
mated, that  a  multitude  of  the  friars,  and  of  others  who 
were  called  Christians,  were  then  compassing  his 
death  by  every  variety  of  machination.!  That  he 
had  fully  counted  the  cost  of  his  warfare,  is  further 
evident  from  the  language  in  which  he  contends  for 
the  necessity  of  constant  preparation  for  martyrdom. 
"  It  is  a  satanical  excuse,"  he  says,  in  the  same  trea- 
tise, "made  by  modern  hypocrites,  that  it  is  not  ne- 
cessary now  to  suffer  martyrdom,  as  it  was  in  the 
primitive  Church,  because  now  all,  or  the  greatest 
part  of  living  men,  are  believers,  and  there  are  no 
tyrants  who  put  Christians  to  death.  This  excuse  is 
suggested  by  the  devil :  for,  if  the  faithful  would  now 
stand  firm  for  the  law  of  Christ,  and,  as  his  soldiers, 
endure  bravely  any  sufferings,  they  might  tell  the 

*  From  the  MS.  of  Dr.  James  in  the  Bodleian,  cited  by  Vaughan,  vol.  ii. 
p.  212,  213. 

t  Trialogus,  lib.  iv.  c.  4. 17.  39.  See  Lewis,  c.  vii.  p.  125.  Turner's 
HiatofEng.pt.iv.  p.  424. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  265 

Pope,  the  cardinals,  the  bishops,  and  other  prelates, 
how,  departing  from  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  they 
minister  unfitly  to  God,  and  what  perilous  injury 
they  commit  against  his  people."  And  he  adds, 
"  Instead  of  visiting  pagans,  to  convert  them  by  mar- 
tyrdom, let  us  preach  constantly  the  law  of  Christ  to 
princely  prelates:  martyrdom  will  then  meet  us, 
speedily  enough,  if  we  persevere  in  faith  and  pa- 
tience."* We  have  seen,  however,  that  in  the  midst 
of  all  his  dangers,  there  were  various  causes  which 
combined  to  divert  the  malice  of  his  adversaries,  and 
to  save  them  from  the  "  deep  damnation  of  his  taking 
off."  The  times  were  full  of  confusion.  England  was 
convulsed  by  contending  factions.  The  antagonist 
Pontiffs  were  still  engaged  in  anathematizing  each 
other,  and  in  tearing  Europe  to  pieces.  And  then, 
although  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  withdrew  his  open 
support  from  the  Reformer,  when  once  he  committed 
himself  to  the  sacramental  contest,  it  was  very  doubtful 
whether  he  would  endure  the  sacrifice  of  his  valued 
and  time-honoured  friend.  Besides,  it  was  evident 
that  the  days  of  Wiclif  were  drawing  to  an  end :  and 
the  result  of  all  these  circumstances  was,  that  the 
man  who  for  more  than  twenty  years  had  made  the 
kingdom  echo  with  his  testimony  against  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  Church,  was,  nevertheless,  doomed  to 
close  his  immortal  labours  by  a  peaceful  death,  f 
After  his  settlement  at  Lutter worth,  his  infirmities 
compelled  him  to  ease  the  burden  of  his  parochial 
duties,  by  the  assistance  of  a  curate.  To  the  last, 
however,  he  did  not  wholly  discontinue  his  personal 
ministrations ;  and  it  was  his  happiness  to  finish  his 
course  in  the  public  execution  of  his  holy  office.  On 
the  29th  of  December,  1384,  he  was  mortally  seized 
with  paralysis,  in  his  church,  during  the  celebration 

*  Trialogus,  cited  by  Turner,  pt.  iv.  p.  424. 

t  "Admirable,"  says  Fuller,  "that  a  hare  so  often  hunted,  with  so 
many  packs  of  dogs,  should  die,  at  last,  quietly  sitting  in  his  form."— 
Church  Hist.  p.  142. 

23 


266  LIFE   OF    WICLIF. 

of  mass,  and  just  about  the  time  of  the  elevation  of 
the  sacrament.  The  attack  was  so  severe  as  to  de- 
prive him  of  speech,  and  to  render  him  utterly  help- 
less. In  this  condition  he  lingered  two  days;  and 
was  finally  taken  to  his  rest,  on  the  last 

DeathofWiciif.  daY  of  the  Year>   and  in  the  sixty-first 

year  of  his  age. 

Character  of  Thus  prematurely  was  terminated  the 
Wiciif.  career  of  this  extraordinary  man.  His 

days  were  not  extended  to  the  length  usually  allotted 
to  our  species.  Ten  more  years  of  vigorous  exertion 
might  reasonably  have  been  expected  from  the  vir- 
tuous and  temperate  habits  of  an  exemplary  life. — 
But  the  earthly  tenement  was,  probably,  worn  out  by 
the  intense  and  fervid  energy  of  the  spirit  within : 
and  if  his  mortal  existence  be  measured  by  the  amount 
of  his  labours  and  achievements,  he  must  appear  to  us 
as  full  of  days  as  he  was  of  honours.  It  now  remains 
that  we  endeavour  to  form  a  righteous  estimate  of 
him,  as  he  presents  himself  to  our  conceptions 
through  the  haze  and  mist  of  ages.  Unfortunately, 
he  is  known  to  us  almost  entirely  by  his  writings. 
Over  all  those  minute  and  personal  peculiarities 
which  give  to  any  individual  his  distinct  expression 
and  physiognomy,  time  has  drawn  an  impenetrable 
veil.  To  us  he  appears,  for  the  most  part,  as  a  sort 
of  unembodied  agency.  To  delineate  his  character,  in 
the  fullest  and  most  interesting  sense  of  that  word, 
would  be  to  write  romance,  and  not  biography.  Dur- 
ing a  portion  of  his  life,  indeed,  he  is  more  or  less 
mixed  up  with  public  interests  and  transactions :  but 
of  these  matters  our  notices  are  but  poor  and  scanty ; 
and,  if  they  were  more  copious,  they  would,  probably, 
do  little  towards  supplying  us  with  those  nameless  par- 
ticulars to  which  biography  owes  its  most  powerful 
charm.  With  regard  to  the  details  of  his  daily  life, — 
the  habitual  complexion  of  his  temper — the  turn  of 
his  conversation — the  manner  of  his  deportment 
among  his  companions — his  inclinations  or  antipa- 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  267 

thies — his  friendships  or  his  alienations — we  must  be 
content  to  remain  in  hopeless  ignorance.  The  only 
circumstance  recorded  concerning  him,  that  falls 
within  the  description  of  an  anecdote,  is  the  reply  with 
which  he  confounded  the  meddling  and  insidious 
Friars,  who  intruded  themselves  upon  him  when  they 
thought  he  was  about  to  breathe  his  last.  This  inci- 
dent is,  indeed,  most  abundantly  characteristic ;  and 
it  makes  us  bitterly  regret  that  it  stands  alone.  A 
few  more  such  particulars  would  have  been  quite  in- 
valuable. As  it  is,  we  must  be  satisfied  to  think  of 
him  as  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  and  lifting 
up,  through  a  long  course  of  years,  a  loud,  incessant, 
heart-stirring  testimony,  against  abuses,  which  for 
ages  had  wearied  the  long-suffering  of  heaven.  Re- 
specting his  gigantic  successor,  Martin  Luther,  we 
are  in  possession  of  all  that  can  enable  us  to  form  the 
most  distinct  conception  of  the  man.  We  see  him 
in  connexion  with  the  wise,  and  the  mighty,  and 
"  the  excellent  of  the  earth."  We  behold  him  in  his 
intercourse  with  sages  and  divines,  with  princes  and 
with  potentates.  We  can  trace  him,  too,  through  all 
those  bitter  agonies  of  spirit  through  which  he  strug- 
gled on,  and  on,  till  at  last  he  seized  upon  the  truth 
which  made  him  free  for  ever.  But,  to  us,  Wiclif  ap- 
pears almost  as  a  solitary  being.  He  stands  before  us  in 
a  sort  of  grand  and  mysterious  loneliness.  To  group 
him,  if  we  so  may  speak,  with  other  living  men,  would 
require  a  very  strong  effort  of  the  imagination.  And 
hence  it  is  that  we  meditate  on  his  story  with  emo- 
tions of  solemn  admiration,  but  without  any  turbulent 
agitation  of  our  sympathies. 

In  this  penury  of  information,  tradi-  Traditiong  re. 
tion  steps  in,  as  it  were,  to  "  help  us  with  specting  wiclif 
a  little  help."  Various  stories,  it  would  at  Lutterworth, 
appear,  are  current  to  this  day  in  the  town  of  Lutter* 
worth,  respecting  its  ancient  and  renowned  rector. 
But  the  only  one  among  them  that  appears  worthy  of 
attention,  is  that  which  represents  him  as  admirable 


268  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

in  all  the  functions  of  a  parochial  minister.  A  por- 
tion of  each  morning,  it  is  said,  was  regularly  devoted 
to  the  relief  of  the  necessitous,  to  the  consolation 
of  the  afflicted,  and  to  the  discharge  of  every  pious 
office,  by  the  bed  of  sickness  and  of  death.  Every 
thing  which  is  actually  known  respecting  Wiclif 
combines  to  render  this  account  entirely  credible. 
The  duties  of  the  Christian  ministry  form  the  inces- 
sant burden  of  a  considerable  portion  of  his  writings. 
To  the  faithfulness  and  assiduity  with  which  he 
discharged  one  very  essential  portion  of  those  duties, 
the  extant  manuscripts  of  his  parochial  discourses 
bear  ample  and  honourable  testimony.  There  is 
nothing,  therefore,  which  can  tempt  the  most  scepti- 
cal caution  to  question  the  report  which  describes 
him  as  exemplary  in  every  department  of  his  sa- 
cred stewardship.  "  Good  priests,"  he  himself  tells 
us,  "  who  live  well,  in  purity  of  thought,  and  speech, 
and  deed,  and  in  good  example  to  the  people,  who 
teach  the  law  of  God,  up  to  their  knowledge,  and 
labour  fast,  day  and  night,  to  learn  it  better,  and  teach 
it  openly  and  constantly,  these  are  very  prophets  of 
God,  and  holy  angels  of  God,  and  the  spiritual  lights 
of  the  world !  Thus  saith  God,  by  his  prophets,  and 
Jesus  Christ  in  his  Gospel ;  and  saints  declare  it  well 
by  authority  and  reason.  Think,  then,  ye  priests,  on 
this  noble  office,  and  honour  it,  and  do  it  cheerfully 
according  to  your  knowledge  and  your  power  !"*  it 
is  surely  delightful  to  believe  that  the  people  of  Lut- 
terworm  had  before  their  eyes  the  living  and  breath- 
ing form  of  that  holy  benevolence  which  is  here  pour- 
trayed  with  so  much  admirable  simplicity  and  beauty. 
His  prefer-  The  preceding  narrative  has  already 
menu?  not  in-  made  us  acquainted  with  the  notions 
consistent  with  entertained  by  Wiclif  relative  to  the 

his  notions  re-         ,  v    i      /-^i         t.  j    v. 

specting    cieri-  endowments  of  the  Church,  and  the  re- 
cai  possessions,  venues  of  individual  clergymen.   And  it 

*  MS.  For  the  order  of  priesthood,  cited  by  Vaughan,  vol.  ii.  p.  259. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  269 

y^  perhaps,  be  thought  somewhat  remarkable  that 
any  one  who  maintained  such  principles  should  ne- 
vertheless have  held,  without  apparent  scruple,  the 
chair  of  theology  at  Oxford,  a  prebendal  stall,  and  a 
parochial  rectory.  Of  the  value  of  these  preferments 
we  are  in  no  condition  to  form  any  satisfactory  esti- 
mate. They  must,  however,  in  all  probability,  have 
been  considerable  ;  at  any  rate,  they  must  have  been 
far  beyond  the  measure  of  what  was  needful  to  sup- 
ply the  moderate  necessities  of  life,  at  a  period  when 
the  sacred  office  doomed  its  professors  to  celibacy; 
and,  therefore,  far  beyond  that  which  his  system 
would  seem  to  allot,  as  the  legitimate  provision  of  a 
Christian  minister.  The  truth  is,  that  Wiclif  seems 
to  have  regarded  all  the  endowments  of  the  Church 
as  a  manifest  departure  from  the  original  spirit  of 
the  Christian  system.  Had  he  been  allowed  to  re- 
model our  ecclesiastical  polity,  he  would,  probably, 
have  made  the  clergy  dependent  on  the  voluntary 
offerings  of  the  people.  However,  he  found  a  differ- 
ent scheme  actually  established ;  and  he,  doubtless, 
conceived  himself  at  liberty  to  conform  to  it,  provided 
the  funds  entrusted  to  his  stewardship  were  adminis- 
tered by  him  according  to  the  intention  of  the  ori- 
ginal donor.  This  intention  he  understood  to  be, 
that  the  holder  of  those  funds  should  retain  for  his 
own  use  so  much  as  might  be  required  for  his  own 
support,  upon  a  frugal  and  moderate  scale ;  but  that, 
for  every  thing  beyond  his  own  personal  wants,  he 
should  stand  in  the  place  of  perpetual  almoner  to  the 
founder,  and  perpetual  trustee  for  the  poor.  Now 
there  appears  no  reasonable  cause  to  question  that 
Wiclif  acted  faithfully  up  to  this  principle.  His  ad- 
versaries have  never  breathed  a  syllable  to  the  dis- 
paragement of  his  integrity  in  this  particular.  He 
has  never,  that  I  am  aware,  been  charged,  by  those 
who  most  cordially  hated  him,  with  inconsistency, 
for  accepting  or  retaining  his  preferments,  or  with 
avarice  and  selfishness  in  the  disposal  of  his  emolu- 
23* 


270  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

ments.  And  when  we  combine  this  consideration 
with  the  traditional  accounts  of  him,  which  still  sur- 
vive at  Lutterworth,  the  almost  irresistible  inference 
is,  that  he  did,  actually,  regard  all  his  superfluities  as 
strictly  consecrated  to  the  relief  of  indigence. 

With  regard  to  the  private  life,  and  personal  habits 
of  Wiclif,  it  has  never  been  denied  by  his  adversa- 
ries, that  in  these  respects  he  was  altogether  above 
impeachment  or  suspicion.  But  it  requires  no  incon- 
siderable exercise  of  patience  to  observe  the  spirit 
which  seems  to  have  presided  over  the  representations 
Wiclif,  not  a  &iven  °f  mrn  ^7  some,  whom  we  might 
political  naturally  expect  to  find  among  his 

churchman.  friends.  By  these  he  is  pictured  to  us 
rather  under  the  aspect  of  an  unquiet  political  agi- 
tator than  of  a  devout  and  spiritual  servant  of  Christ.* 
The  foundation  for  this  charge  it  is  beyond  my  capa- 
city to  discover.  It  is  true  that  his  great  reputation 
fixed  the  eyes  of  the  government  upon  him  as  the 
fittest  person  to  vindicate  his  country  from  the  igno- 
miny and  the  oppression  of  the  I  apal  tribute — that 
the  same  cause  dispatched  him,  among  other  illus- 
trious men,  as  the  representative  of  her  ecclesiastical 
interests  in  the  embassy  to  Bruges — and,  lastly,  that 
the  Parliament  of  England  resorted  to  the  sanction 
of  his  judgment,  when  they  resolved,  that  the  very 
marrow  of  the  realm  should  no  longer  be  drained 
eut,  to  pamper  the  greediness  and  ambition  of  a 
foreign  court.  Services  like  these  would  seem  to  de- 
mand of  Englishmen  no  other  sentiments  than  those 
of  gratitude  and  reverence :  and  that  eye  must,  in- 
deed, be  keen  to  upry  into  abuses,"  which  can  dis- 
cover in  the  performance  of  such  services  any  griev- 
ous departure  from  the  sacredness  of  the  spiritual 
function.  An  English  ecclesiastic,  o,f  distinguished 
sagacity  and  erudition,  was  employed  to  defend  the 
Church  and  State  of  England  against  the  rapacity 

*  Milnert  Church  History. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  271 

of  aliens ;  and  this,  too,  in  an  age  when  the  talents 
and  accomplishments  of  Churchmen  were  constantly 
in  requisition,  for  all  the  most  arduous  responsibili- 
ties of  secular  office.  This  is  the  whole  truth  and 
substance  of  the  case.  If,  indeed,  it  could  be  shown 
that  the  days  and  nights  of  Wiclif  had  been  wholly, 
or  chiefly,  consumed  in  occupations  and  engagements 
of  this  description, — and  that  his  powers  were  thus 
diverted  from  the  peculiar  channel  in  which  the  main 
current  of  a  Churchman's  exertions  ought,  indisputa- 
bly, to  flow, — there  might  be  some  pretence  for  this 
invidious  exhibition  of  his  character.  But  the  fact  is 
not  so.  The  occurrences  in  question  were  nothing 
more  than  short  episodes  in  his  life.  We  have  only 
to  look  into  his  writings,  or,  even  into  a  catalogue  of 
his  writings,  to  see  how  small  a  portion  of  his  time 
on  earth  was  absorbed  by  matters  in  which  politics 
had  the  slightest  concern.  And  the  more  rigorously 
those  writings  are  scrutinized,  the  more  clearly  will  it 
appear,  that  no  confessor  was  ever  animated  by  a 
more  disinterested,  unworldly,  and  devotional  spirit, 
than  the  man  who  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  John  of 
Gaunt,  and  the  confidence  of  the  British  Parliament.* 
The  imperfect  justice  hitherto  rendered  wiciif  as  admi- 
to  the  memory  of  Wiclif,  as  a  man  of  rabieforhisper- 
deep  religious  affections,  may,  in  part,  fo^his^op^ 
be  the  natural  effect  of  that  peculiar  in-  tion  to  Romish 
terest  which  attaches  to  his  character  as  abuse> 
the  antagonist  of  a  corrupt  hierarchy.  We  have  been 
accustomed  to  regard  him,  chiefly,  as  the  scourge  of 
imposture,  the  ponderous  hammer,  that  smote  upon 
the  brazen  idolatry  of  his  age ;  and  our  thoughts 
have  thus  been  too  much  withdrawn  from  the  work, 
which  was  constantly  going  forward  within  the  re- 

*  The  limits  of  this  work  forbid  the  introduction  of  passages  from  the 
works  of  Wiclif,  in  support  of  this  assertion.  They,  however,  who  may 
be  desirous  of  satisfying  themselves  upon  this  point,  have  only  to  peruse 
the  more  diffuse  volumes  of  Mr.  Vaughan,  whose  laborious  examination 
of  the  whole  of  Wiclif  a  writings,  both  printed,  and  in  MS.,  has  enabled 
him,  in  this  particular,  irresistibly  to  vindicate  his  memory. 


272  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

cesses  of  his  own  spirit.  A  more  just  and  patient 
consideration  of  his  writings  will  show  us,  that  the 
demolition  of  error,  and  of  fraud,  was  not  more  con- 
stantly present  to  his  mind,  than  the  building  up  of 
holy  principles  and  affections.  These  two  objects 
are,  for  the  most  part,  closely  interwoven  with  each 
other :  and  this  it  is,  together  with  his  use  of  the  ver- 
nacular tongue,  which  gave  his  writings  their  wide 
and  powerful  influence.  There  had,  doubtless,  (as 
we  have  already  observed,)  been  produced  before  his 
time,  and  within  the  very  bosom  of  the  Romish 
Church,  considerable  stores  of  solid  and  devotional 
theology;  but,  then,  they  were  either  enshrined  in 
such  "  cunning  work"  of  scholastic  subtilty  and  ab- 
straction,— or  they  were  so  guiltless  of  all  reference 
to  existing  circumstances  and  abuses, — that,  to  the 
people,  they  were,  generally,  no  better  than  the 
merest  nullities;  and  they  were,  consequently,  re- 
garded with  supreme  indifference  and  composure,  by 
the  Romish  Church.  The  reveries  of  Plato  were 
scarcely  more  innocuous  to  the  worldly  system  of  the 
Papacv,  than  pure  effusions  of  the  most  exalted  piety; 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  works  of  Bradwardine,  or, 
at  a  later  period,  the  treatise  of  Thomas  a  Kempis. 
But  the  toils  of  Wiclif  had  a  twofold  object.  He 
laboured  not  only  to  shake  in  pieces  the  outward 
fabric  of  the  house  of  Rimmon,  but,  also,  to  expose 
and  to  correct  the  personal  vices  and  corruptions 
which  had  for  ages  sought  a  shelter  in  its  sanctuary. 
The  former  of  these  is  an  undertaking,  which  rouses 
the  indignant  sympathies  of  mankind.  The  latter  is 
a  work  which  summons  all  who  contemplate  it,  to  a 
painful  examination  of  their  own  hearts  and  con- 
sciences. And  hence  it  is,  that  the  cause  which  ex- 
posed him  to  persecution  in  his  own  day,  is  that 
which  has  principally  made  him  the  object  of  admi- 
ration in  the  times  which  followed.  The  Reformer 
of  Christian  morals  has  been  forgotten  in  the  Re- 
former of  Papal  abuse ;  and  thus  his  memory  has- 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  273 

been  left  open  to  the  suggestion,  that  he  is  to  be 
honoured  as  the  antagonist  of  Popery,  not  as  the  ad- 
vocate of  Christ,— fitted  to  join  with  politicians  and 
with  princes,  in  their  resistance  to  encroachment, 
rather  than  to  band  with  saints  and  confessors  in 
bearing  testimony  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

If  any  one  were  required  to  point  out  His  unwearied 
the  distinguishing  attribute  of  Wiclif 's  energy. 
mind,  he  might,  with  justice,  fix  upon  its  inexhausti- 
ble and  unwearying  energy.  He  was  not  one  of  those 
small  combatants,  who  soon  speed  their  puny  shafts, 
and,  when  their  quiver  is  once  emptied,  sit  down  con- 
tented, and,  think  their  warfare  is  accomplished.  He 
was,  it  may  be  truly  said,  a  most  "  insatiate  archer." 
For  a  long  series  of  years  his  bolts  followed  each 
other  so  thick  and  fast,  that  his  enemies,  who  affirm- 
ed that  he  was  an  emissary  of  Satan,  might  have 
been  almost  justified  in  pronouncing  that  his  name 
was  Legion.  One  would  imagine,  that  his  spirit  never 
enjoyed  a  moment's  ease  or  comfort,  but  while  it  was 
giving  impulse  to  his  pen  ;  for  it  has  been  conjectured 
that,  if  all  his  works  could  be  brought  together,  they 
would  form  a  collection  nearly  equal  in  bulk  to  the 
writings  of  St.  Augustine.  His  attainments,  for  the 
age  in  which  he  lived,  were  eminent  and  admirable. 
He  was  acknowledged  as  a  mighty  clerk,  even  by 
Archbishop  Arundel;*  and  we  have  already  seen 
that  his  skill  in  the  scholastic  discipline  was  allowed 
to  be  incomparable.  This  last  accomplishment,  it 
has  frequently  been  observed,  was  of  signal  service 
to  the  cause  to  which  he  dedicated  himself.  It  is 
justly  remarked,  by  Mr.  Turner,  in  speaking  of  his 
Trialogus,  that  "  its  attractive  merit  was,  that  it  com- 
bined the  new  opinions  with  the  scholas-  _ 
tic  style  of  thinking  and  deduction.  It  TfThelcUS 
was  not  the  mere  illiterate  Reformer,  discipline  on 
teaching  novelties,  whom  the  man  of  hismind' 

•  Thorp's  Examination. 


274  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

education  disdained  and  derided :  it  was  the  respected 
academician,  reasoning  with  the  ideas  of  the  Re- 
former."* If  estimated,  however,  by  its  effect  upon 
his  own  mind,  rather  than  by  its  influence  upon  the 
minds  of  others,  the  Genius  of  the  Schools  was  but 
a  very  questionable  ally.  It  was  frequently  a  source 
of  weakness  rather  than  of  strength.  It  seems, 
whenever  he  called  it  to  his  aid,  to  have  exercised  a 
sinister  and  treacherous  influence  upon  all  his  facul- 
ties, and  often  to  have  forced  them  grievously  aside 
from  their  simplicity  and  rectitude.  When  he  is 
addressing  untutored  minds,  he  usually  drives  his 
ploughshare  right  onward ;  but  no  sooner  does  he 
yoke  this  capricious  drudge  with  his  own  sturdy  oxen, 
than  all  manner  of  unsteadiness  and  obliquity  seems 
to  be  the  consequence.  This  we  have  seen  remark- 
ably exemplified  in  his  two  confessions,  relative  to 
the  Eucharist.  The  English  one  is,  on  the  whole, 
simple  and  perspicuous  enough:  the  other,  which  is 
in  Latin,  and  composed  with  a  view  to  more  accom- 
plished judges,  runs  out  into  all  the  mazes  and  intri- 
cacies of  the  favourite  mode  of  reasoning;  and  the 
result  is,  that  it  has  given  his  adversaries  occasion  to 
charge  him  with  cowardly  and  disingenuous  artifice, 
and  to  affirm,  that  his  object  was  to  envelope  him- 
self in  darkness,  and  so  to  effect  his  escape.  The 
injustice  of  this  charge,  however,  has  been  already 
shown.  Timidity  can  have  had  no  concern  with  the 
obscurity  and  perplexity  of  this  document — for  timid- 
ity never  would  have  dictated  the  sentence  with 
which  it  concludes,  and  which  very  intelligibly  stig- 
matizes his  persecutors  and  assailants  as  little  better 
than  agents  .of  the  Devil.  The  scholastic  discipline 
may,  perhaps,  have  occasionally  bewildered  his  intel- 
lect ;  but  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  show  that  it 
ever  spread  a  mist  over  his  moral  perceptions. 

*  Turner,  Hist.  England,  pt.  iv.  p.  420. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  275 

It  is,  perhaps,  scarcely  worth  while  to  Alleged  coaiae, 
recur  to  the  imputation  of  unmannerly  ness  of  his  in- 
coarseness,  which  the  adversaries  of  vectives- 
Wiclif  have  laboured  to  fix  upon  the  style  in  which 
he  arraigned  the  existing  iniquities  of  the  Romish 
system.  One  word  more  upon  the  subject  may, 
however,  be  endured.  Refinement,  it  must  surely 
be  well  known,  was  not  among  the  characteristics  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  language  of  Wiclif 's 
Romish  adversaries  would  alone  be  sufficient  to  show 
this ;  for  he  can  bear  no  comparison  with  them  in  the 
command  of  these  implements  of  controversial  war- 
fare. Even  if  we  advance  from  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury to  the  sixteenth,  we  shall,  unhappily,  perceive, 
that  urbanity  and  mildness  had  found  but  little  favour 
among  men  who  were  engaged  in  theological  or  lite- 
rary conflict.  Wiclif  might,  really,  have  gone  to 
school  to  Martin  Luther  and  John  Calvin,  had  he 
lived  in  their  days,  and  had  he  been  desirous  to  perfect 
himself  in  the  accomplishment  of  railing.  It  is  hu- 
miliating, indeed,  to  think,  that  this  species  of  fire- 
brand should  ever  be  madly  tossed  about  by  men,  who 
appeared  as  ministers  and  champions  of  a  religion, 
which  speaks  incessantly  of  benevolence  and  of 
courtesy.  But,  in  estimating  the  blame  of  such 
excesses,  it  is  weak  and  ignorant  to  disregard  the 
complexion  of  the  age,  which  will  usually  be  exhibited 
in  greater  vividness,  in  proportion  to  the  vehement 
sincerity  of  its  masterful  and  over-ruling  spirits. 

The  name  of  Wiclif  irresistibly  carries  comparison  of 
us  forward  to  that  of  Luther,  and  invites  Wiclif  with  Lu- 
us  to  a  moment's  comparison  of  these  ther- 
mighty  spirits  with  each  other.  In  one  respect  the 
resemblance  between  their  destinies  is  eminently 
striking :  it  was  the  glory  of  each  to  give  the  holy 
Scriptures  to  his  countrymen,  in  their  native  tongue. 
In  vehemence  of  temperament,  in  audacity  of  genius, 
and  heroism  of  soul,  the  German  may,  indeed,  be 
thought  to  stand  above  our  countryman ;  and,  in  truth, 


276  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

it  would,  perhaps,  be  difficult  to  fix  on  many,  among 
the  sons  of  men,  fit  to  endure,  in  these  particulars,  a 
comparison  with  the  Saxon  monk.  It  is  impossible 
to  think  of  him, — setting  at  nought  the  thunders  of 
the  earthly  divinity,  and  tossing  into  the  flames  his 
Bull  of  excommunication, — without  being  reminded 
of  the  warrior  of  antiquity,  proclaiming  that  if  the 
bolt  of  Jove  himself  were  to  fall  at  his  feet,  it  should 
not,  for  a  moment,  arrest  his  course.*  On  the  other 
hand,  however,  it  should  be  remembered,  that  Luther 
breathed  an  air  which  had  long  been  most  potently 
impregnated  with  the  very  essence  of  innovation.  For 
several  ages,  an  accusing  spirit  had  been  wandering 
throughout  the  continent,  and  loudly  arraigning  the 
abuses  of  the  Papacy.  In  many  parts  of  Europe,  it 
had  found  a  congenial  element, — sometimes  even 
within  the  precincts  of  the  Imperial  Palace  of  Germa- 
ny. But,  till  the  days  of  Wiclif,  "  the  noise  of  its 
wings11  had  been  but  faintly  heard  in  England.  Its 
influences  may,  doubtless,  have  been  considerably 
aided  by  the  intercourse  between  this  country  and  its 
continental  dependencies.  But  it  was  never  power- 
ful enough  to  seize  on  any  strong  positions  in  our 
land.  The  resistance  offered  to  Popery  by  our  mo- 
narchs,  our  barons,  and  our  parliaments,  was  the 
resistance  of  politicians,  indignant  at  the  impoverish- 
ment and  disgrace  of  their  country,  rather  than  of 
Christian  men,  afflicted  for  the  perversion  and  abuse 
of  their  religious  institutions.  Among  our  bravest 
and  loftiest  minds,  indeed,  that  of  Grostete  seems  to 
have  been  most  deeply  smitten  with  an  earnest  long- 
ing for  better  and  purer  times.  But  even  his  aspir- 
ings stirred  him  not  to  an  open  and  systematic  con- 
flict with  corruption,  in  the  face  of  the  whole  realm. 
This  was  an  enterprise  reserved  for  our  Reformer : 
and  the  circumstances  under  which  he  seized  upon  the 
adventure,  were,  in  some  respects,  perhaps,  more  full 
of  terror  than  those  which  ever  frowned  upon  the 
•  Sept.  central  Thebas. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  277 

antagonist  of  Tetzel.  In  the  early  days  of  Luther, 
the  Papacy  appears  to  have  settled  quietly  down  upon 
its  lees.  The  outcry  for  improvement  was  occasion- 
ally loud  and  vehement,  indeed:  but  the  clamour 
had  been  so  often  raised  in  vain,  that  it  was  listened 
to,  at  length,  with  most  insolent  composure ;  so  that 
the  lethargy  of  the  Vatican  was  broken  only  by  the 
uproar  of  the  assault  upon  it.  And  then,  too,  when 
once  the  conflict  began,  the  leader  of  it  could  number 
potentates  among  his  allies  and  partisans ;  till,  at  last, 
he  may  be  said  to  have  had 

A  kingdom  for  a  stage,  princes  for  actors, 
And  monarchs  to  behold  the  swelling  scene. 

Not  so  in  the  age  of  Wiclif.  The  Papacy  then,  at 
least,  was  vigilant  and  active,  and  nearly  m  the  full 
integrity  of  its  strength.  At  all  events,  the  secret  of 
its  weakness  had  not  then  been  partially  exposed  by 
the  Councils  of  Pisa,  of  Constance,  and  of  Basil ;  and 
therefore  it  was,  that  a  voice  from  England,  demand- 
ing reformation, — denouncing  the  religious  Orders  as 
the  legions  of  the  fiend — and  calling  on  the  Holy 
Father  himself  to  cast  away  his  "  crown  of  pride," 
and  his  unhallowed  wealth — (and  all  this  too  in  a 
tongue  understood,  not  only  by  the  Scribe,  and  the 
Recorder,  and  the  Priest,  but  by  the  people  sitting  on 
the  wall) — a  voice  like  this,  from  the  chiefest  and 
and  most  fruitful  paradise  of  the  Papacy,  must  have 
sounded  like  the  trumpet-note  of  insane  rebellion  and 
apostasy ;  and  must  have  awakened  the  direst  wrath 
in  the  heart  of  the  Papal  autocrat.  It  must  also  be 
considered,  that  although  the  Englishman  was,  to  a 
certain  extent,  countenanced  'by  the  mother  of  the 
King,  and  by  the  most  powerful  Prince  of  the  blood, 
he  met  with  no  support  which  deserved  to  be  com- 
pared with  that  retinue  of  powerful  patronage  which 
gave  effect  to  the  exertions  of  Luther;  and,  that, 
towards  the  close  of  his  life,  even  that  protection 
dropped  away  from  him,  and  left  him  open  to  an- 
24 


278  LIFE   OF  W1CLIF. 

ticipations  of  martyrdom.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  these 
discouragements,  he  continued  urgent  and  faithful  to 
the  very  last ;  differing  from  his  former  self,  at  the 
close  of  his  days,  in  nothing  but  the  larger  extent  of 
his  views,  the  deeper  intensity  of  his  convictions,  and 
the  more  exalted  daring  of  his  purposes.  Allowing, 
therefore,  to  Luther,  the  highest  niche  in  this  sacred 
department  of  the  Temple  of  Renown,  I  know  not 
who  can  be  chosen  to  fill  the  next,  if  it  shall  be  denied 
to  Wiclif. 

There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that,  after 
WiSt^  the  death  of  Wiclif,  his  opinions  conti- 
ions,  at  Oxford,  nued  to  prevail  in  the  University  of  Ox- 
ath-  ford,  to  an  extent  which  excited  the  in- 
dignation of  the  Ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  that 
his  memory  was  cherished  there  with  feelings  of  the 
profoundest  veneration.  The  prevalence  of  his  doc- 
trines is  abundantly  attested  by  the  reiterated  com- 
plaints of  Archbishop  Arundel,  who  affirms  that  Ox- 
ford was  as  a  vine  that  brought  forth  wild  and  sour 
grapes,  which  being  eaten  by  the  fathers,  the  teeth 
of  the  children  were  set  on  edge ;  so  that  the  whole 
province  of  Canterbury  was  tainted  with  novel  and 
damnable  Lollardism,  to  the  intolerable  and  notorious 
scandal  of  the  University.*  Again  : — "  She  who  was 
formerly  the  mother  of  virtues,  the  prop  of  the  Catho- 
lic faith,  the  singular  pattern  of  obedience,  now 
brings  forth  only  abortive  or  degenerate  children,  who 
encourage  contumacy  and  rebellion,  and  sow  tares 
.  among  the  pure  wheat."!  Their  rever- 
rf*TuSi?S!  ence  for  the  name  and  labours  of  Wiclif 
shy,  in  honour  is  indicated  by  a  solemn  testimonial  to 

?n  i406mem°ry>  his  worth'>  which  is  said  to  have  been 
given  by  the  University,  in  the  year 
1406,  and  sealed  with  their  common  seal.  It  is  true 
Question  of  its  tnat  considerable  suspicion  hangs  over 
authenticity  the  authenticity  of  this  document.  The 
considered.  precise  occasion  on  which  it  was  drawn 

•  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  318.  t  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  235. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  279 

up  and  executed,  is  unknown ;  and,  besides,  it  has 
been  gravely  affirmed,  "  that  one  Peter  Payne,  a  here- 
tic, stole  the  University  seal,  under  which  he  wrote 
to  the  heretics  at  Prague,  in  Bohemia,  that  Oxford, 
and  all  England  were  of  the  same  belief  with  those 
of  Prague,  except  the  false  Friars  Mendicant." 
There  is  something  in  this  story  not  very  probable : 
for,  as  Lewis  observes,  it  is  not  lightly  to  be  credited 
tbat  the  seal  of  the  University  should  be  so  carelessly 
guarded,  as  to  render  practicable  this  impudent  im- 
posture. A  somewhat  more  plausible  supposition  is, 
that  the  friends  and  admirers  of  Wiclif  may  have 
seized  upon  the  advantage  afforded  them,  by  the  ab- 
sence of  his  enemies,  during  the  vacation,  and  may 
have  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  honouring  the 
memory  of  the  Reformer  by  the  above  Certificate. 
And  this  conjecture  receives  some  slight  support 
from  a  statute  afterwards  made,  providing,  that  the 
seal  of  the  University  shall  not  be  fixed  to  any  writ- 
ing, but  in  full  congregation  of  Regents,  if  in  full 
term ;  or  in  full  convocation  of  Regents  and  non- 
Regents,  if  in  vacation;  and  that  nothing  shall  be 
sealed  till  after  one  day's  full  deliberation.  Nothing 
can  be  more  likely  than  that  this  statute  may  have 
been  framed  to  obviate  practices  similar  to  those  by 
which  this  testimonial  is  supposed  to  have  been  ob- 
tained :  but,  yet,  when  it  is  recollected  that  this  enact- 
ment did  not  take  place  till  1426,  twenty  years  after 
the  passing  of  the  document  in  question,  it  will  not 
appear  eminently  probable  that  this  was  the  fraud  by 
which  the  statute  was  occasioned.  It  should  further 
be  remembered  that,  although,  according  to  some  ac- 
counts, this  testimonial  was  stigmatized  as  a  forgery 
by  certain  Englishmen  at  the  Council  of  Constance, 
yet  there  was  no  act  produced,  on  the  part  of  the 
University,  disclaiming  its  authenticity.*  But  whe- 
ther the  paper  be  authentic  or  not,  it  may  still  be 

*  See  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  228—236,  where  the  authenticity  of  this  testimo- 
nial is  amply  discussed, 


280  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

relied  on  as  evidence  of  the  estimation  in  which  the 
character  of  Wiclif  was  still  held  at  Oxford ;  for  the 
preparation  of  such  an  instrument  would  never  have 
entered  the  head  of  the  most  unscrupulous  of  his 
admirers,  if  it  were  not  perfectly  notorious  that  his 
memory  was  deeply  honoured  by  a  very  large  portion 
of  the  members  of  the  University :  and  for  this  reason 
the  testimonial  is  here  inserted  at  length.* 

"  The  ptiblike  Testimonie  given  out  by  the  Universitie  of 
Oxford,  touching  the  Commendation  of  the  great 
Learning  and  good  Life  of  John  Wickliffe. 

"  Unto  all  and  singuler  the  children  of  our  holy 
mother  the  church,  to  whom  this  present  letter  shall 
come  :  the  vicechancellor  of  the  Universitie  of  Ox- 
ford, with  the  whole  congregation  of  the  masters, 
wish  perpetual  health  in  the  Lord.  Forsomuch  as  it 
is  not  commonly  scene,  that  the  acts  and  monuments 
of  valiant  men,  nor  the  praise  and  merits  of  good 
men  should  be  passed  over  and  hidden  with  per- 
petuall  silence,  but  that  true  report  and  fame  should 
continually  spread  abrode  the  same  in  strange  and 
farre  distant  places,  both  for  the  witnesse  of  the  same, 
and  example  of  others :  Forasmuch  also  as  the  pro- 
vident discretion  of  mans  nature  being  recompensed 
with  cruelty,  hath  devised  and  ordained  this  buckler 
and  defence,  against  such  as  doe  blaspheme  and 
slander  other  mens  doings,  that  whensoever  witnesse 
by  word  of  mouth  cannot  be  present,  the  pen  by 
writing  may  supply  the  same : 

"  Hereupon  it  folio weth,  that  the  special  good  will 
and  care  which  we  bare  unto  John  Wickliffe,  some- 
time child  of  this  our  Universitie,  and  professour  of 
divinitie,  moving  and  stirring  our  minds  (as  his  man- 
ners and  conditions  required  no  lesse)  with  one  mind, 
voice,  and  testimonie,  wee  doe  witnesse  all  his  con- 

•  The  original  Latin  is  printed  in  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  302,  from  the 
Cotton  MS.  Faust,  c.  7. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  281 

ditions  and  doings  throughout  his  whole  life,  to  have 
been  most  sincere  and  commendable :  whose  honest 
manners  and  conditions,  profoundnesse  of  learning, 
and  most  redolent  renoune  and  fame,  wee  desire  the 
more  earnestly  to  bee  notified  and  knowne  unto  all 
faithfull,  for  that  we  understand  the  maturitie  and 
ripenesse  of  his  conversation,  his  diligent  labours  and 
travels  to  tend  to  the  praise  of  God,  the  helpe  and 
safegard  of  others,  and  the  profit  of  the  church. 

"  Wherefore  we  signifie  unto  you  by  these  presents, 
that  his  conversation  (even  from  his  youth  upwards, 
unto  the  time  of  his  death)  was  so  praise  worthie  and 
honest,  that  never  at  any  time  was  there  any  note  or 
spot  of  suspicion  noysed  of  him.  But  in  his  answer- 
ing, reading,  preaching  and  determining,  he  behaved 
himselfe  laudably,  and  as  a  stout  and  valiant  cham- 
pion of  the  faith ;  vanquishing  by  the  force  of  the 
Scriptures,  all  such  who  by  their  wilful  beggery 
blasphemed  and  slandered  Christ's  religion.  Neither 
-was  this  said  doctor  convict  of  any  heresie,  either 
burned  of  our  prelats  after  his  buriall.  God  forbid 
that  our  prelats  should  have  condemned  a  man  of 
such  honestie,  for  an  heretike :  who  amongst  all  the 
Universitie,  had  written  in  logicke,  philosophic,  di- 
vinitie,  moralitie,  and  the  speculative  art  without 
peere.  The  knowledge  of  which  all  and  singuler 
things,  wee  doe  desire  to  testifie  and  deliver  forth; 
to  the  intent,  that  the  fame  and  renoune  of  this  said 
doctor,  may  be  the  more  evident  and  had  in  reputa- 
tion, amongst  them,  unto  whose  hands  these  present 
letters  testimoniall  shall  come. 

"  In  witness  whereof,  we  have  caused  these  our 
letters  testimoniall  to  bee  sealed  with  our  common 
seale.  Dated  at  Oxford  in  our  congregation  house, 
the  5.  day  of  October,  in  the  yeare  of  our  Lord  1406." 

Next  to  the  admiration  of  those  who  are  friendly 

to  his  cause  and  memory,  the  most  forcible  encomium 

of  Wiclif  is  to  be  found  in  the  virulent  abuse  heaped 

upon  his  name  by  his  adversaries.    Among  the  vari- 

24* 


282  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

ous  extant  testimonials  of  this  description,  we  may 
c  tio  f  se^ect  l^at  °f  tne  Chronicler,  Walsing- 
Wi^ifTmemo-  ham.  We  have  seen,  above,  the  titles 
ry  by  papal  which  Wiclif  earned  from  the  pen  of  that 
writer,  by  the  faithful  and  zealous  labours 
of  his  life.  The  following  is  the  language  in  which 
the  same  historian  exults  over  his  death : — "  On  the 
day  of  St.  Thomas  the  Martyr,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, that  organ  of  the  Devil,  that  enemy  of  the 
Churcn,  that  confusion  of  the  populace,  that  idol  of 
heretics,  that  mirror  of  hypocrites,  that  instigator  of 
schism,  that  sower  of  hatred,  that  fabricator  of  lies, 
John  Wiclif, — when,  on  the  same  day,  as  it  is  reported, 
he  would  have  vomited  forth  the  blasphemies,  which 
he  had  prepared  in  his  sermon  against  St.  Thomas, — 
being  suddenly  struck  by  the  judgment  of  God,  felt 
all  his  limbs  invaded  by  the  palsy.  That  mouth, 
which  had  spoken  monstrous  things  against  God  and 
his  Saints,  or  the  holy  Church,  was  then  miserably 
distorted,  exhibiting  a  frightful  spectacle  to  the  be- 
holders. His  tongue,  now  speechless,  denied  him 
even  the  power  of  confessing.  His  head  shook,  and 
thus  plainly  showed  that  the  curse  which  God  had 
thundered  forth  against  Cain,  was  now  fallen  upon 
him.  And,  that  none  might  doubt  of  his  being  con- 
signed to  the  company  of  Cain,  he  showed  by  mani- 
fest outward  signs,  that  he  died  in  despair."*  Again : 
"  After  he  had  been  smitten  with  the  palsy,  he  dragged 
out  his  hated  life  until  St.  Silvester's  day.  On  which 
day  he  breathed  out  his  malicious  spirit  to  the  abodes 
of  darkness.  And,  in  truth,  most  justly  was  he 
stricken  on  the  day  of  St.  Thomas,  whom  his  en- 
venomed tongue  had  often  blasphemed;  and  was 
doomed,  with  temporal  death,  on  the  day  of  St.  Sil- 
vester, whom  he  had  exasperated  with  his  incessant 
invectives."*  It  would  be  idle  to  waste  a  word  of 

"  Walsingh.  p.  338. 

t  Wals.  Ypod.  Neustr.  p.  142.    It  was  vain  to  hope  that  the  memory 
<tf  an  audacious  heretic  would  find  mercy  at  the  hand  of  Romish  writers, 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  283 

censure  upon  this  stupid  and  barbarous  jargon.  It  is 
utterly  undeserving  of  notice,  otherwise  than  as  af- 
fording a  curious  indication  of  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
and  a  strong  testimony  to  the  formidable  nature  of 
Wiclif's  aggressions  on  its  predominant  superstitions. 
The  hatred  of  Wiclif's  enemies  was  quite  as  long- 
lived  and  as  active  as  the  admiration  of  his  adherents. 
It  not  only  persecuted  his  memory,  but  forbade  his 
remains  to  rest  in  peace.  This  pitiful  exhibition  of 
malignity  was  occasioned  by  the  wide  dispersion  of 
the  English  Reformer's  opinions  in  many  parts  of  the 
continent,  but  more  especially  in  Bohe- 
mia. The  queen  of  Richard  the  Second  wkUPs^opin- 
was  a  Bohemian  princess ;  and,  on  her  ions  in  Bohe- 
decease  her  attendants  are  supposed  to  mia* 

when  one  of  their  own  Prelates  is  stigmatized  by  them  as  a  victim  of 
God's  just  vengeance,  for  having  dared  to  intimate  his  dislike  of  one 
of  the  grossest  of  their  superstitious  follies.  The  massacre  of  Archbishop 
Sudbury,  by  the  insurgent  peasantry,  was  regarded  as  no  less  than  a 
manifest  judgment  of  heaven ;  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  narra- 
tive, by  the  author  of  "  the  looking-glass  for  little  children:"*  "In 
the  fourth  jubilee  of  the  most  famous  martyr,  St.  Thomas,  the  people 
from  every  place  flocked  to  Canterbury,  with  intense  affection  of  heart. 
At  the  same  time,  it  happened  that  the  venerable  lather,  the  Lord  Simon 
de  Suthberi,  then  Bishop  of  London,  was  travelling  towards  Canterbury  ; 
and  being  misled  by  the  spirit  of  error,  assured  the  multitudes,  then  on 
their  pilgrimage  thither,  that  the  plenary  indulgence  they  hoped  for  at 
Canterbury  was  of  no  profit  or  value :  on  which  many  of  the  crowd, 
with  downcast  looks,  stood  amazed  at  this  saying  of  so  great  a  father. 
Some  of  them  actually  went  back  again:  but  others,  with  loud  voices, 
cursed  the  bishop  to  his  face,  saying  and  wishing,  that  he  might  die  a 
base  and  shameful  death,  who  was  not  afraid  thus  to  injure  and  insult 
the  glorious  martyr.  A  Kentish  knight,  also,  (whose  name  the  writer 
thinks  was  Sir  Thomas  de  Aldoun,)  being  moved  with  anger,  came  up 
to  the  bishop,  and  said  :  <  My  Lord  Bishop,  because  you  have  raised  this 
sedition  among  the  people,  against  Saint  Thomas,  on  pain  of  my  life,  or 
on  peril  of  my  soul,  you  shall  die  a  shameful  death ;'  to  which  all  the 
people  cried,  amen,  amen !  And  accordingly,  in  the  reign  of  Richard 
II.  this  Simon  de  Suthberi,  then  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was  beheaded 
by  the  mob  that  rose  under  Wat  Tyler  and  Jack  Straw,  that  the  voice  of 
the  people  (that  is,  saith  the  writer  of  this  story,  the  voice  of  God,)  might, 
even  as  it  was  foretold,  be  in  due  time  fulfilled."  And  this  narrative,  the 
writer  tells  us,  is  given,  in  order  that  others  might  be  deterred  from  all 
opposition  to  the  Papal  indulgences,  and  from  all  attempts  to  repress  the 
devotion  of  the  pilgrims. 

*  Speculum  parvulorum.  lib.  v.  c.  27.  apud  Wharton,  Angl.  Sacr.  voL 
it  cited  by  Lewis  in  his  Life  of  Biahop  Pecock,  c.  iii.  p.  6$,  67. 


284  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

have  carried  back  with  them  to  their  own  country 
some  considerable  portions  of  Wiclif's  compositions, 
and  thus  to  have  been  greatly  instrumental  in  the 
dissemination  of  his  doctrines.  The  soil  was,  at  that 
time,  well  prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  seed ; 
and  the  effect  of  his  writings  there  was  even  more 
striking  and  rapid  than  that  which  they  produced  in 
his  own  country.  It  is  said  that  full  two  hundred  of 
his  books  were  burnt  by  Subinco  Lepus,  bishop  of 
Prague.  The  number  may,  at  first  sight,  appear 
surprising:  but  it  must  be  recollected,  that  Wiclif 
generally  sent  forth  his  notions  into  the  world  in 
small  detachments.  He,  doubtless,  perceived,  that 
the  frequent  appearance  of  little  tracts  would  much 
facilitate  the  dissemination  of  his  tenets, — an  object 
which,  before  the  invention  of  printing,  would  be 
most  injuriously  retarded  by  the  publication  of 
more  bulky  volumes.  The  estimation  in  which  these 
treatises  were  held  in  Bohemia,  is  illustrated  by  the 
fact,  that  many  of  those  which  were  burnt  by  Subinco 
were  very  finely  written,  and  decorated  with  splendid 
bindings,  and  costly  embossments  of  gold.  It  is  still 
more  conspicuously  manifested,  in  the  open  commen- 
dation with  which  they  were  honoured  by  the  illus- 
trious martyrs,  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague; 
and  in  the  consequent  reprobation  of 

His       writings     ,  i       /->!  •!      r  /i 

condemned,  and  them  by  the  Council  ofConstance,  In 
his  remains  dis-  1415?  full  thirty  years  after  the  death  of 
Decree  of  the  Wiclif,  a  long  list  of  intolerable  proposi- 
Councii  of  Con-  tions  was  selected  by  that  assembly  from 
his  writings,  and  branded  with  the  mark 
of  heresy.  The  memory  of  the  writer  was,  at  the 
same  time,  consigned,  in  due  form,  to  infamy  and 
execration;  and  an  order  was  issued,  that  "his  body 
and  bones,  if  they  might  be  discerned  and  known 
from  the  bodies  of  other  faithful  people,*  should  be 

*  This  must  have  been  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  :  "  for  though,"  says 
Fuller,  "the  earth  in  the  chancel  of  Lmterworth,  where  he  was  interred, 
fcath  not  so  quick  a  digestion  as  the  earth  of  Aceldama,  to  consume  flesh 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  285 

taken  from  the  ground,  and  thrown  far  away  from 
the  burial  of  any  church,  according  to  the  canon  laws 
and  decrees."  "And  here,"  exclaims  old  Fox,  "  what 
Heraclitus  would  not  laugh,  or  what  Democritus 
would  not  weep,  to  see  so  sage  and  reverend  Catoes, 
to  occupie  their  heads  to  take  up  a  poor  man's  bodie, 
so  long  dead  and  buried?  And  yet,  peradventure, 
they  were  not  able  to  find  his  right  bones,  but  tooke 
np  some  other  bodie,  and  so  of  a  catholic  made  a 
heretic."  But,  whether  the  bones  discovered  were 
catholic  or  heretic,  the  grave  was  actually  ransacked, 
in  pursuance  of  this  decree,  though  not  till  thirteen 
years  after  it  was  pronounced :  and  melancholy  it  is 
to  think,  that  the  person  to  whom  the  order  was 
dispatched,  was  Richard  Fleming,  once  a  zealous 
adherent  of  the  Reformer,  but  then  bishop  of  Lincoln, 
and  an  unsparing  persecutor  of  the  opinions  which 
he  formerly  professed  !  The  remains  of  Wiclif  were 
accordingly  disinterred  and  burned,  and  the  ashes 
cast  into  the  adjoining  brook,  called  the  Swift.  "  And 
so,"  exclaims  the  martyrologist,  "was  he  resolved 
into  three  elements,  earth,  fire,  and  water;  they 
thinking  thereby  utterly  to  extinct  and  abolish  both 
the  name  and  doctrine  of  Wiclif  for  ever.  Not  much 
unlike  the  example  of  the  old  Pharisees  and  Sepul- 
chre-knights, which,  when  they  brought  the  Lord 
unto  the  grave,  thought  to  make  him  sure  never  to 
rise  again.  But  these,  and  all  other,  must  know,  that, 
as  there  is  no  counsel  against  the  Lord,  so  there  is  no 
keeping  down  of  veritie,  but  it  will  spring  and  come 
out  of  dust  and  ashes ;  as  appeared  right  well  in  this 
man.  For  though  they  digged  up  his  body,  burned 
his  bones,  and  drowned  his  ashes,  yet  the  word  of 
God,  and  truth  oT  his  doctrine,  with  the  truth  and 
success  thereof,  they  could  not  burn ;  which,  yet,  to 

in  twenty-four  hours,  yet  such  the  appetite  thereof,  and  all  other  English 
graves,  as  to  leave  small  reversions  of  a  body,  after  so  many  yeara"— • 
Church  History,  p.  170. 


286  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

this  day,  for  the  most  part  of  his  articles,  dp  remain."* 
"  The  brook,"  says  Fuller,  "  did  convey  his  ashes  into 
Avon;  Avon  into  Severn;  Severn  into  the  narrow 
seas;  they  into  the  main  ocean.  And  thus  the  ashes 
of  Wiclif  are  the  emblem  of  his  doctrine,  which  now 
is  dispersed  all  the  world  over."f 

*  Fox,  in  Wordsw.  Eccl.  Biogr.  vol.  i.  p.  96, 97. 

t  Church  History,  p.  171,  vyhere  Fuller  notices  a  vulgar  tradition,  that 
the  brook,  into  which  the  ashes  of  Wiclif  were  poured,  never  since  over- 
flowed its  banks!  Both  Papists  and  Protestants,  it  seems,  have  claimed 
the  benefit  of  this  circumstance.  In  the  estimation  of  the  Papists,  the 
regulated  flow  of  the  stream  is  a  blcs-sins,  by  which  heaven  has  clearly 
expressed  its  approval  of  the  indianity  offered  to  the  remains  of  a  heretic. 
The  Protestants  (if  any  thing,  with  a  better  show  of  reason,)  have  con- 
tended, that  the  peaceful  state  of  the  waters  indicates  the  sanctity  of  the 
dust  which  was  once  committed  to  them. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  287 

CHAPTER  IX. 

WICLIF'S   OPINIONS. 

Wiclif 's  views  of  Justification  by  Faith — Wiclif  charged  by  some 
with  Pelagianism,  by  others,  more  justly,  with  the  doctrine  of 
Predestination — His  Predestinarian  notions  chiefly  confined  to 
his  Scholastic  Writings — Pilgrimage  and  Image-worship — Pur' 
gator  y — Auricular  Confession  and  Papal  Indulgences — Excom- 
munication and  Papal  Interdicts — Papal  poicer  and  supremacy 
— Episcopacy — The  Church — Church  visible  and  invisible— The 
Sacraments — Baptism — Confirmation — Penance — Ordination — • 
Matrimony — The  Eucharist — Extreme  Unction — Celibacy  of 
the  Clergy — Fasting — Ceremonies — Church  Music — Judicial  As- 
^trology — Notions  imputed  to  Wiclif  that  God  must  obey  the  Devil, 
Wand  that  every  creature  is  God — Dominion  founded  on  Grace,  how 
understood  and  explained  by  Wiclif— Scriptural  principles  cf 
civil  obedience  faithfully  enforced  by  him — Wiclif ''s  opinions  as  to 
the  poicer  of  the  State  over  Church  property — Wiclif  considers 
Church  Endowments  as  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  oj  Christian- 
ity— Tithes  represented  by  him  as  Alms — -Value  of  Wiclif 's  ser- 
vices, as  preparatory  to  the  Reformation — Notion  of  the  Reform- 
ation, as  it  would  probably  have  been  effected  by  him — The  belief 
prevalent  in  his  time  that  Satan  was  loosed — Its  probable  influence 
on  his  views  and  opinions. 

ALTHOUGH  the  general  tenor  and  complexion  of  Wic- 
lif's  theological  opinions  may  be  collected,  with  tole- 
rable clearness,  from  the  foregoing  narrative  of  his 
life,  our  account  of  him  might  reasonably  be  deemed 
imperfect,  if  not  followed  up  by  something  of  a  more 
systematic  exhibition  of  his  principles.  The  attempt, 
however,  to  supply  the  reader  with  a  comprehensive 
view  of  his  notions,  will  by  no  means  involve  the 
necessity  of  dwelling  diffusely  upon  those  points, 
respecting  which  his  protestantism  (if  the  term  may 
be  allowed,)  has  never  been  subject  to  question.  Our 
attention  will,  therefore,  be  chiefly  directed  to  those 
topics  which  have  furnished  occasion  of  doubt  and 
misgivings  to  his  admirers,  or,  of  slander  and  perver- 
sion to  his  enemies. 


288  LIFE   OF   WICLI7. 

Wiciifa  views  Of  course  the  defender  of  his  memory 
of  jju.8t.jficalion  can  have  no  peace  until  he  has  disposed 
of  the  censure  with  which  his  theology 
has  been  stigmatized  by  Melanchthon,  and,  after  him, 
by  some  other  Protestant  Divines;  namely,  that  it 
was  not  only  tinctured  with  Pelagianism,  and  often 
ascribes  desert  to  human  actions, — but  that  it  con- 
tains no  recognition  whatever  of  the  grand  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith.  In  the  mouth  of  a  reformer 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  this  objection  ought,  per- 
haps, to  excite  but  little  surprise.  The  doctrine  in 
question  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  key  which 
opened  the  gates  of  Paradise  to  Luther;  for  until  he 
had  discovered  it,  the  kingdom  of  God  appeared  to 
him,  surrounded  as  it  were  by  a  wall  of  adamant: 
and  it  might  naturally  be  expected  that  they,  who| 
drank  deeply  into  the  spirit  of  Luther's  theology, 
should  look  with  distrust  on  any  one  who  should  dare 
to  approach  the  sacred  enclosure  without  bearing  this 
mighty  instrument  aloft  in  his  hand.  To  them  the 
pilgrim  would  appear  as  an  unblest  adventurer,  bent 
upon  scaling  the  battlements  of  heaven,  instead  of 
entering  in  at  the  appointed  gate.  It  was  not  enough 
for  them,  that  the  spirit  of  this  great  truth  should  es- 
sentially pervade  the  writings  of  a  teacher:  his  words 
would,  m  their  eyes,  have  but  little  faithfulness  in 
them,  unless  they  prominently  and  constantly  set 
forth  this  precious  secret,  as  the  beginning,  the  mid- 
dle, and  the  end,  of  all  saving  doctrine.  Estimated 
by  a  standard  like  this,  the  divinity  of  Wiclif  may, 
possibly,  appear  to  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God, 
and  his  gratuitous  salvation.  In  our  times,  this  doc- 
trine, of  course,  has  not  lost-»-as  it  never  can  lose — 
a  tittle  of  its  value ;  but  it  can  scarcely  be  reasonable 
for  us  to  brood  over  it  with  the  same  jealousy,  as  if  it 
were  a  long-buried  treasure,  but  recently  dug  up  by 
us  from  the  rubbish  of  ages.  At  this  day,  it  will 
hardly  be  questioned,  that,  even  without  an  incessant 
iteration  of  this  truth,  the  essence  of  it  may  be  so 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  289 

fnixed  up  with  our  teaching,  as  to  give  it  all  the  pe- 
culiar unction  and  savour  of  the  Gospel.  And  if  so, 
we  shall  find  but  little  difficulty  in  perceiving  that  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  was  in  truth  the  vital 
principle  of  Wiclif's  theology.  He  tells  us,  in  express 
words,  that  the  merit  of  Christ  is  sufficient  to  redeem 
mankind  from  hell,  and  this  without  the  concurrence 
of  any  other  cause ;  that  faith  in  him  is  sufficient  for 
salvation  ;  that  they  who  truly  follow  him  are  justi- 
fied by  his  justice,  and  made  righteous  by  participa- 
tion in  his  righteousness;  and  that  infidels  are  not  to 
foe  accounted  as  living  virtuously,  even  though  they 
should  do  such  works  as,  in  their  kind,  are  good.* 
Conformable  to  these  declarations  is  the  whole  tenor 
of  his  doctrine.  The  merits  of  his  Saviour  evidently, 
form  the  central  object  of  his  meditations.  And  if 
there  occasionally  drop  from  him  any  allusion  to  hu- 
man desert,  it  is  obviously  introduced,  not  in  dis- 
paragement of  the  sovereign  merits  of  Christ,  but  of 
the  vicarious  good  offices  either  of  priests  or  saints; 
not  to  weaken  our  dependence  on  our  Redeemer,  but 
to  strengthen  our  conviction  that,  in  the  presence  of 
his  Judge,  each  man  must  stand  or  fall  by  his  own 
personal  doings,  not  by  those  of  his  confessor,  or  of 
his  mass-priest,  or  of  any  other  spiritual  agent.  That 
he  rejected  all  Pharisaic  and  Pelagian  confidence  iri 
human  merit,  is  clear  and  undeniable.  "Heal  us, 
Lord,"  he  exclaims,  "  for  nought ;  nor  for  our  merits, 
tut  for  thy  mercy. — Lord,  not  to  our  merits,  but  to 
thy  mercy  give  the  joy. — Give  us  grace  to  know  that 
all  thy  gifts  be  of  thy  goodness. — Our  flesh,  though 
it  seem  holy,  yet  it  is  not  holy.— We  are  all  originally 
sinners,  not  only  from  our  mother's  womb,  but  in  our 
mother's  womb.— We  cannot  so  much  as  think  a  good 
thought,  unless  Jesu,  the  Angel  of  great  counsel,  send 
it ;  nor  perform  a  good  work,  unless  it  b3  properly 
his  good  work. — His  mercy  comes  before  us,  that  we 

*  James's  Apology  for  Widif  c  v. 

25 


290  LIFE   OF    WICL1F. 

receive  grace,  and  followeth  us,  helping  and  keeping 
us  in  grace."*  And  yet,  with  passages  like  these  seat- 
Wiciif  cha^d  <ered  °ver  his  works,  Wiclif  has  been 
by  some  with  deemed  a  worthy  associate  of  Pelagius, 
Peiagianism.  an(]  nas  been  charged  with  suppressing 
or. denying  the  grace  of  God,  and  of  teaching  his 
followers  to  put  their  sole  trust  in  human  virtue  and 
deserving  !f 

As  aw  antagonist  charge  to  that  of  Pe- 
justiy,  wuhThe  lagianism,  we  find  him  accused  by  others 
doctrine  of  Pre-  of  maintaining  that  all  things  come  to 
pass  by  absolute  necessity;  a  doctrine 
which,  in  its  fullest  latitude,. annihilates  not  only 
human  merit,  but  human  responsibility.  That  a 
Schoolman  should  resist  the  temptation  to  meddle 
with  this  untractable  question,  was  scarcely  to  be  ex- 
pected. That,  like  all  other  mortals  who  have  ever 
approached  it,  he  should  be  defeated  and  baffled,  was 
a  necessary  result  of  the  attempt.  I  cannot  find, 
however,  that  he  has  advanced  any  thing  upon  this 
subject  which  should  fix  upon  him  the  imputation  of 
unqualified  fatalism.  He  confesses,  indeed,  in  his 
Trialogus,  that  he  had  ascribed  every  event  to  abso- 
lute necessity ;  not  being  able  to  conceive  that  there 
should  be  any  effective  impediment  to  the  Divine 
Will ;  but  then  he,  likewise,  professes  to  modify  this 
proposition  by  the  needful  caution,  that,  since  we  are 
ignorant  of  the  purposes  of  God,  future  occurrences 
must  present  themselves  to  our  understanding  as  so 
many  possibilities,  and  that  all  his  promises  and 
threatenings  must  be  received  by  us  as  under  a  con- 
dition either  tacit  or  express4  And  thus  his  views 

*  James's  Apology,  c.  vi.  The  last  of  the  above-cited  passages,  turned 
into  a  prayer,  gives  us,  precisely,  one  of  our  own  Collects :  "  Lord,  we 
pray  thee  that  thy  grace  may  always  prevent  and  follow  us,  and  make  us 
rontinually  to  be  given  to  all  good  works  throueh  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 
Collect  for  the  17th  Sunday  after  Trinity.  See  also  Lewis,  c.  viiL  ps. 
174,  175. 

t  See  the  quotations  from  Walden,  in  James's  Apology,  c.  vi. 

t  This,  if  I  comprehend  it  rightly,  is  the  substance  of  the  passage  cited 
by  Lewis,  (c.  viii.  p.  178.)  though  the  language  is  sufficiently  obscure. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  291 

are  found  to  be  in  unison  with  those  of  the  soundest 
thinkers  of  our  own  times,  whose  sentiments  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  language  of  Dr.  Hey  :*  "  Disputes 
on  liberty  and  necessity  are  vain  and  idle ;  as  much 
so  as  if  you  were  placed  within  a  spherical  surface, 
and  I  without  it,  and  we  were  to  enter  into  abstruse 
arguments  on  the  question,  whether  the  surface  be- 
tween us  were  concave  or  convex.  In  my  situation 
it  is  convex,  in  yours  it  is  concave."  If  we  consider 
events  with  reference  to  the  Divine  Mind,  it  seems 
utterly  impossible  to  think  of  them  as  otherwise  than 
fixed  :  if  we  consider  them  with  reference  to  respon- 
sible agents,  it  seems  as  impossible  to  regard  them  as 
otherwise  than  contingent.  This  was  clearly  per- 
ceived by  Wiclif;  and  he  likewise  appears  to  have 
been  aware  of  the  vanity  of  all  attempts  to  reconcile, 
by  a  mere  logical  process,  conditional  decrees,  with 
absolute  foreknowledge,  perfect  independence,  and 
unlimited  sovereignty.! 

In  his  application  of  the  doctrine  of  necessity  to 
theological  subjects,  Wiclif  is  sparing  and  cautious. 
In  his  Trialogns,  indeed,  he  says  that 
"  we  are  predestinated  to  obtain  divine  na^!fn  ^kms 
acceptance,  and  to  become  holy;"  and  chiefly  confined 
professes  it  to  be  his  opinion,  that  "  this  ^r^n^holastic 
grace  of  predestination  can  by  no  means 
fail."  But,  whatever  may  have  been  the  rigour  with 
which  he  held  this  theory,  the  subject  is  but  rarely 
introduced  into  his  practical  discourses.  The  Trialo- 
gus,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  one  of  his  more 
abstruse  and  scholastic  lucubrations  :  and  so  long  as 
the  predestinarian  question  is  confined  to  the  Schools, 
its  mischievous  influence  will  be  comparatively  tri- 
fling. In  his  popular  and  pastoral  compositions,  the 
allusions  to  this  unfathomable  topic  are  but  slight  and 
transient ;  so  that  it  may  be  reasonably  hoped,  he  had 

See  also  James's  Apology,  c.  ix.  Answer  to  the  fourth  objection  of  the 
apologists. 

•  Leot.  vol.  iii.  p.  248.  t  See  Lewis,  p.  178. 


292  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

not  wrought  himself  into  persuasion,  that  such  specu- 
lations formed  au  indispensable  ingredient  in  a  scheme 
of  sound  religious  belief. 

It  must  be  almost  needless  to  state,  that  every 
thing  which  tends  to  exalt  the  creature  into  the  place 
of  the  Creator,  or  to  transfer  to  inferior  beings  any 
share  in  the  work  of  mediation  or  intercession,  was 
rigidly  excluded  from  the  faith  of  Wiclif.  On  the 

Pilgrimages,  subject  of  images  and  pilgrimages,  and 
and  image  wor-  invocation  of  saints,  he  is,  perhaps,  less 
BhiP-  copious  than  might  be  expected.  That 

the  use  of  images,  (considered  merely  as  the  books  of 
ignorant  and  unlearned  laymen)  was  not  forbidden, 
he  most  distinctly  concedes ;  and  he  likens  them  to 
the  wedding  ring,  which  is  cherished  by  the  wife  as 
.the  symbol  of  her  attachment  and  fidelity  to  her  hus- 
band.* But  though  he  considers  the  practice  as  law- 
ful, it  is  quite  evident  that  he  does  not  regard  it  as 
safe  :  and  he  has  a  most  watchful  eye  on  the  abuses 
to  which  it  offers  such  powerful  temptation.  He 
conceives  that  the  venom  of  idolatry  lurks  within  it ; 
and  affirms  that  Papists,  in  effect,  assimilate  them- 
selves to  Pagans,  when  they  attempt  to  repel  the 
charge  of  idolatry,  by  the  shallow  pretext,  that  their 
devotions  terminate  not  in  the  figure,  but  in  that 
which  it  represents.!  He,  moreover,  affirms,  thai 
when  the  dumb  idol  is  honoured  with  costly  offerings, 
and  with  such  adoration  as  is  due  to  God  alone,  it 
may  lawfully  be  broken  or  burnt  by  Christian  kings, 
witn  the  assent  of  their  lords  and  clergy,  even  as  the 
brazen  serpent  was  broken  in  pieces  by  Hezekiah, 
when  the  children  of  Israel  began  to  offer  incense  to 
it.  His  perception  of  the  vanity  of  all  applications 
to  men  deceased,  appears  to  have  gained  strength 
with  his  advance  in  life :  for  in  one  of  his  latest 
works,  he  censures  it  as  folly  to  seek  for  any  interr 
cession  but  that  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  thougn  he  so 

*  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  175.  t  James's  Apol.  c.  viii.  a.  6. 


OF   WICLIF.  293 

far  conformed  to  the  usage  of  the  Church  as  to  keep 
the  festivals  of  the  saints,  yet  he  intimates  plainly, 
that  it  might  be  as  well  if  they  were  altogether  abo- 
lished, so  that  men  might  celebrate  the  festival  of 
Jesus  Christ  alone,  and  the  devotion  of  the  people 
might  cease  to  be  parcelled  out  among  his  members- 
And  he  concludes,  that  the  multitude  of  canonizations 
may  reasonably  be  ascribed  to  the  decay  of  faith,  and 
the  growth  ef^ovetousness.*  In  the  early  part  of  his 
life,  indeed,  his  opinions  on  this  subject  may,  pos- 
sibly, have  been  less  decided.  But  that  he  retained 
any  erroneous  impressions  respecting  it,  at  the  close 
of  his  days,  seems  distinctly  negatived  by  the  cla- 
mours of  his  enemies,  who  speak  of  him  as  actually 
raving  against  the  saints,  and  as  visited  with  a 
frightful  death  for  this,  among  his  other  manifold 
impieties.^ 

His  notions  relative  to  purgatory  pur 
would  seem,  on  the  whole,  to  have  been, 
in  like  manner,  progressive ;  though  it  assuredly, 
cannot  be  affirmed  that  they  ever  advanced  so  far  as 
to  the  total  abandonment  of  that  fiction.  In  one  of 
his  earlier  writings,  he  expressly  acknowledges,  on 
the  authority  of  St.  Augustine,  that  souls  in  purga- 
tory are  helped  and  comforted  by  the  alms  and  reli- 
gious exercises  of  good  men4  And  in  a  subsequent 
treatise  he  allows,  that  saying  of  mass,  with  burning 
devotion,  and  holiness  and  integrity  of  life,  is  well 
pleasing  to  God,  and  profitable  to  Christian  souls  in 
purgatory. §  In  another  place  he  treats  all  the  fear- 
ful sayings  concerning  purgatory,  as  things  spoken  by 
way  of  commination,  and,  as  it  were,  so  many  pious 
falsehoods.  He  divides  the  church  into  three  por- 
tions, the  militant,  the  reposing,  and  the  triumphant; 
and  speaks  of  the  Sabbath  as  prefiguring  the  rest 

'  Trialogus,  c.  iii.  p.  30,  31. 

t  James's  Apology,  c.  viii.  a.  24, 25. 

JMSS.  Cotton.  Titus.  D.  xix.  129,  cited  by  Vaughan,  vol.  ii.  p.  288. 

§  Sentence  of  curse  expounded,  c.  vii.  cited  in  Lewis,  c.  viii  p.  161. 

25* 


294  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

of  those  who  sleep  in  purgatory.*  From  which  it 
would  appear  that,  in  his  opinion,  all  that  could  he 
done  by  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  would  be  to  im- 
prove, in  some  indefinite  manner,  the  condition  of 
departed  souls,  in  their  intermediate  state.  All  this, 
it  must  be  allowed,  is  indistinct  and  unsatisfactory 
^enough :  but,  vague  as  it  is,  it  strikes  directly  at  the 
root  of  the  Romish  doctrine  and  practice,  which 
proved  so  vast  a  source  of  unholy  emolument  to  the 
Church.  As  Dr.  James  remarks,  "  it  thrusts  the 
Popish  purgatory  clean  put  of  doors:  for  there  is 
little  rest,  and  less  sleeping  there,  if  we  believe  them 
who  have  come  from  thence.  And  by  this  reason,  if 
the  fire  of  purgatory  be  clean  put  out,  the  smoke  of 
it, — that  is,  prayers  for  the  dead,  must  needs,  in  a 
very  short  time,  vanish  away."f  It  should  further 
be  recollected,  that,  whatever  might  by  the  efficacy  of 
prayers  for  the  deceased,  that  efficacy  is  repeatedly 
ascribed  by  him,  to  the  devotions  of  the  laity  as  well 
as  those  of  the  priesthood;  nay,  that,  in  his  judg- 
men,t,  the  prayer  of  the  pioys  layman  was,  without 
measure,  more  availing  than  that  of  a  worthless  and 
reprobate  prelate. $  On  the  whole  matter,  therefore, 
it  may  reasonably  be  concluded,  that,  relative  to  the 
precise  condition  of  the  dead,  his  mind  remained,  to 
the  very  last,  in  a  state  of  indecision  •  but  that  he 
never  ceased  to  stigmatize  the  system  of  fraud,  which 
converted  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  into  an  engine  for 
extorting  immense  revenues  from  the  popular  credu- 
lity and  terror.  He  loudly  accuses  the  clergy  of 
"  inventing  pains,  horrible  and  shameful,  to  make 
men  pay  a  vast  ransom  ;"  and  describes  "  all  masses 
for  which  money  is  taken,  as  an  artifice  of  Satan,  and 
£,  contrivance  of  hypocrisy  and  avarice. "§  It  was  no 

*  Omnia  dicta  de  purgatorio,  dicuntur  solummodo  comminatoriS,  tan- 
quam  pia  mendacia.  De  Verit.  Scripturae,  p.  267.  Sabbathum  pre- 
figurat  quietem  dormientium  in  purgatorio.  Ibid.  p.  479.  See  James's 
Apol.  c.  viii:  s.  24,  25.  Trialosus,  li£  iv.  c.  22. 

t  James's  Apol.  c.  viii.  24,  25.  *  Vaughan,  vol.  i i.  p.  289,  290. 

§  On  Prelates,  c.  iii.  cited  in  Yaughan,  vol.  ii.  p.  2S9. 


or 

ordinary  strain  of  daring,  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
to  make  so  fierce  an  irruption  into  these  dark  reposi- 
tories of  the  Romish  treasury  ! 

Intimately  connected  with  purgatory  are  the  enor- 
mities of  Auricular  Confession  and  Papal 
Indulgences;  and  here,  at  least,  the  £™n<n£: 
trumpet  of  Wiclif  gives  utterance  to  pal  induigen- 
nothing  like  an  uncertain  sound.  It  ces< 
would  be  quite  impossible  to  do  justice  to  the  intre- 
pidity of  his  attack  upon  these  fortresses,  which  Papal 
Rome  had,  in  the  course  of  ages,  made  so  strong  for 
herself,  without  much  more  ample  citations  than  the 
limits  of  this  work  allow.  It  must  suffice  to  say, 
that  Luther  himself  never  rushed  to  the  assault  with 
more  desperate  courage,  than  did  his  great  predeces- 
sor, when  once  his  spirit  was  roused  by  the  sight  of 
these  impieties.  He  proclaims  to  the  world, — not  in 
the  learned  dialect  of  the  Schools,  but  in  plain  and 
homely  English, — that  pardons  and  indulgences  are 
mere  forgeries,  whereby  the  priesthood  "rob  men 
cursedly  of  their  money ; — that  they  are  nothing  but 
a  subtle  merchandise  01  Anti-Christ's  clerks,  whereby 
they  magnify  their  own  fictitious  power,  and,  instead 
of  causing  men  to  dread  sin,  encourage  them  to  wal- 
low therein  like  hogs."  And,  as  for  the  despicable 
pretext,  that  the  payment  was  not  demanded  as  the 
price  of  the  pardon  itself,  but  simply  as  a  gratuity  or  fee 
Jbr  the  instrument  by  which  it  was  formally  conveyed, 
he  sarcastically  exclaims,  "  Certes,  then,  a  little  dead 
lead*  doth  cost  many  a  thousand  pound  by  the  year, 
to  this  poor  land !"  and  he  adds,  that  the  mockery  is 
no  less  impudent  than  it  would  be  to  offer  a  fatted 
goose  for  nothing,  but  to  charge  a  good  round  sum 
for  the  garlic  with  which  it  was  to  be  seasoned  !f  To 
us,  the  exposure  of  these  impostures,  may  seem  but 
a  light  and  unimportant  matter.  But,  again,  let  it 
be  considered,  what  it  was  for  an  individual  to  rise 

*  The  seal  affixed  to  the  Papal  Bulls  was  of  lead. 

t  See  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  168—171.    Vaughan,  vol.  ji.  297—304. 


296  LIFE  OF  WICLIF, 

up,  and  to  talk  thus  to  a  whole  nation,  in  an  age 
when  the  possessions  of  men  in  this  world,  and  their 
destinies  in  the  world  to  come,  were  held  to  be  at  the 
disposal  of  an  infallible  and  irresistible  representative 
of  God  upon  earth  I 

Excommunica-  ,  Still  more  admirable,  if  possible,  was 
tioo,  and  Papal  the  sternness  of  his  fulmmations  against 
another  kindred  abomination;  namely, 
that  stupendous  abuse  of  the  power  of  the  keys. 
This  power,  it  is  well  known,  has  always  been  re- 
garded, not  only  by  the  Romish,  but  by  the  Eastern 
Church,  as  the  very  axis  on  which  alone  the  eccle- 
siastical system  can  revolve  with  regularity  and 
steadiness ;  and  without  which  no  Christian  society 
can  deserve  even  the  name  of  a  Church.  The  man- 
ner in  which  this  terrific  authority  was  frequently 
prostituted  to  the  darkest  passions,  is  indelibly  writ- 
ten in  the  history  of  Christian  Europe.  We  there 
learn  that  the  very  spirit  of  Druidism  was,  at  last, 
transferred  to  the  seat  of  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ : 
so  that  the  vengeance  of  an  Italian  Ecclesiastic  could 
not  only  outlaw  individuals  from  all  the  charities  of 
our  nature,  but  could  almost  suspend  the  health,  yea, 
the  very  life,  of  whole  communities.  It  is  needless, 
however,  to  dwell  on  the  miseries  inflicted  by  the 
Papal  sentence  of  Excommunication  or  Interdict,  or 
on  the  terrors  with  which  the  power  of  the  keys  in- 
vested even  the  obscurest  parochial  priest.  At  this 
day  the  thunders  of  Rome  may,  in  our  ears,  be  like 
the  sounding  brass,  or  the  tinkling  cymbal.  But  in 
the  age  of  Wiclif,  it  must  always  be  remembered, 
they  had  power  to  "  make  mad  the  guilty  and  appal 
the  free."  They  were  uttered  by  a  voice,  at  the 
wrathful  sound  of  which  all  countenances  gathered 
blackness.  And  yet  these  were  the  armories  of 
heaven,*  which  our  countryman  had  the  heroism  to 
denounce  and  to  defy ;  and  this.,  in  the  hearing  of  the 

•  Armamentaria  coeli.    Juv. 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  297 

whole  reajm  of  England,  then  one  of  the  fairest  por? 
tions  of  the  Pontifical  domain.  Why,  he  exclaims, 
in  one  of  his  English  treatises,  do  our  wayAvard  cu- 
rates curse  the  souls  of  men  to  hell,  and  their  bodies 
to  prison,  and  doom  them  to  forfeiture  of  goods,  and 
loss  of  life,  and  all  for  the  sake  of  paltry  gain  ? — and 
this,  too,  while  they  themselves  are  accursed  of  God, 
for  entering  on  their  office  by  simony,  and  betraying 
it  by  abandonment  of  duty,  and  unholiness  of  living ! 
The  pains  of  hell,  rather  than  tithes  and  offerings, 
are  their  proper  recompense.  They  are  rather  mali- 
cious tormentors,  than  spiritual  fathers  to  the  souls 
of  men.  Pagan  tyranny  and  persecution  confined  its 
rage  to  the  body,  but  these  children  of  Satan  seek  t# 
plunge  the  soul  into  everlasting  pain.  Yea,  they  are 
worse  than  the  fiends  themselves ;  for  the  fiends  tor- 
ment no  human  soul,  but  for  the  measureless  enormity 
.of  sin :  while  these  clerks  of  Satan  doom  souls  to  hell 
for  some  trifling  due,  which  poverty  may  disable  them 
from  paying,  and  which,  after  all,  is  no  lawful  debt, 
but  a  mere  fraudulent  exaction,  founded  ,on  usages 
that  have  no  warrant  in  the  commandments  of  God.* 
He  hesitates  not  to  add,  that  when  prelates  extend 
their  execrations  to  all  that  shall  commune  with  men, 
whom  they  have  declared  to  be  accursed,  they  may 
be  said,  virtually,  to  include  the  Almighty  himself  hi 
their  maledictions ;  for  God  assuredly  does  not  cease 
Jiis  communion  with  the  vilest  outcast,  so  long  as  he 
affords  him  breath  and  sustenance,  and  is  ready  to 
xestore  him  to  grace  and  forgiveness.  And  well,  he 
says,  may  men  wonder  at  this  prodigality  of  cursing, 
called  forth,  as  it  often  is,  not  for  false  oaths,  and  in- 
fernal ribaldry,  and  other  offences  against  the  majesty 
of  God  and  Christ — but  for  some  invasion  of  the  in- 
terests and  privileges,  and  wayward  customs,  of  the 
priesthood.!  Fearful,  almost  beyond  imagining,  must 

*  Great  sentence  of  curse  expounded,  c.  xvii.    See  Vaughan,  vol.  ii.  p. 
t  Ibid. 'c.  xxv. 


298  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

have  been  the  abuses  which,  in  that  age  of  darkness, 
could  have  stirred  the  spirit  of  any  man  to  denun- 
ciations like  these;  more  especially  of  a  man  who 
never  questioned  the  legitimacy  of  spiritual  censures, 
as  one  essential  department  of  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline, when  duly  and  charitably  administered,  with  a 
single  eye  to  tne  promotion  of  holiness,  and  to  the 
purification  of  the  Church  of  God. 

The  whole  of  Wiclif's  life  is  a  per- 
Huprenwcyr'  Petual  commentary  on  his  views  respect- 
ing the  authority  of  the  Pope,  whether 
temporal  or  spiritual.  That  he  allowed  a  certain 
precedency  of  honour  and  authority  to  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  would  appear  from  a  passage  in  his  treatise 
on  the  Truth  of  Scripture,  in  which  he  holds,  that 
a  man  incurs  the  charge  of  Paganism,  who  scornfully 
refuses  obedience  to  the  Apostolic  See :  and  we  have 
seen  that  in  his  letter  to  the  Pope,  towards  the  close 
of  his  life,  he  addresses  him  as  the  greatest  of  Christ's 
Vicars  upon  earth.  And  it  is  highly  probable  that, 
if  they  who  claimed  to  be  the  Vicegerents  of  God, 
had  exhibited  a  preeminence  of  holiness  at  all  cor- 
responding to  their  supremacy  of  rank,  he  might  have 
been  prepared  to  render  unto  them  all  the  reverence 
which  could  reasonably  be  claim eJ  for  the  occupiers 
of  the  first  See  in  Christendom.  But  he  had  no  con- 
ception that  this  transcendent  dignity  and  honour 
could  adhere  unalienably  to  men  who  often  brought 
to  the  Apostolic  Chair  the  worst  passions  of  man's 
fallen  nature.  Neither  spiritual  infallibility,  nor 
secular  supremacy,  could,  in  his  judgment  or  belief, 
be  the  attributes  of  the  "  worldly  priests  of  Rome, 
the  most  accursed  of  cut-purses,  the  evil  man-slayer, 
and  burner  of  the  servants  of  Christ."  Hence  it  is 
that  his  days  were  passed  in  incessant  warfare  against 
this  "  Master  of  the  Emperor,  this  fellow  of  God,  this 
Deity  on  earth,"  and  against  the  whole  army  of  cleri- 
cal satellites  and  slaves,  who  conspired  to  bow  the 
neck  of  Europe  under  his  dominion.  And  whatever 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  299 

may,  at  any  period,  have  been  his  respect  for  the 
Pope,  in  the  ideal  perfection  of  his  character, — of  the 
actual  Pope,  he  scruples  not  to  pronounce  that  he  is 
the  veriest  Anti-Christ.*  According  to  him,  therefore, 
so  long  as  Christ  is  in  heaven,  the  Church  hath  in 
Him  the  best  Pope :  and  no  true  man  will  dare  to  put 
two  heads,  lest  the  Church  be  monstrous.! 

His  passion  for  simplifying  the  Insti- 
tutions  of  Christianity  is  strangely  mani-  Plsc°Pac: 
fested  in  his  opinions  respecting  the  Hierarchy.  The 
spiritual  aristocracy  in  his  time  was,  undoubtedly,  a 
phenomenon  which  the  primitive  Evangelists,  if  they 
could  revisit  the  earth,  might  be  supposed  to  contem- 
plate with  measureless  astonishment.  And  Wiclif, 
whose  thoughts  were  constantly  wandering  back  to 
the  days  of  apostolic  simplicity,  had  looked  upon 
the  Pontiff  and  his  cardinals, — the  patriarchs,  arch- 
bishops and  bishops, — the  archdeacons,  officials  and 
deans, — and  the  whole  inferior  retinue  of  the  Romish 
priesthood, — till  his  very  heart  grew  sick  at  the  spec- 
tacle of  so  much  cumbrous  and  "  Ccesarean"  pomp, 
and  sought  relief  in  the  persuasion  that  the  two  or- 
ders of  priest  and  deacon,  were  the  only  ones  which 
could  plead  the  sanction  of  Holy  Writ,  or  primitive 
institution.  Whether  he  would  have  altogether  dis- 
carded the  Episcopal  order,  had  he  been  allowed  to 
carry  into  effect  his  own  principles  of  Reformation, 
— or  whether  he  Avould  have  retained  it  as  a  con- 
venient and  useful  appointment, — it  is  impossible  to 
pronounce  with  any  certainty.  But  it  seems  per- 
fectly clear  that  he  did  not  consider  it  as  at  all  essen- 
tial to  the  legitimate  constitution  of  a  Christian 
Church. $  It  is  deeply  to  be  deplored  that  his  power- 
ful and  independent  mind,  while  it  was  rending  in 
pieces  the  cords  of  superstition,  should  have  tamely 

•  Potiasimug  Anti-Christus.    De  Verit.  Scriptures,  in  James's  Apology, 
c.  iii.  s.  4.    On  Prelates,  c.  xxii. 

t  Horn.  Bib.  Reg.  p.  181.  in  Vau?h.  vol.  ii.  p.  273,  note  50. 
J  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  154,  155.  157. 


300  LIFE   OF   WJCLIF. 

surrendered  itself  to  the  captivity  of  this  miserable 
prejudice.  "  Had  it  pleased  him  not  to  hoodwink  his 
own  knowledge,"  he  must  have  seen,  clearly  enough, 
how  to  dispose  of  his  own  objections.  A  divine  like 
him  can,  surely,  never  have  been  ignorant  that,  from 
the  time  of  the  apostles,  to  the  days  in  which  he 
lived,  no  other  form  of  government  but  the  Episcopal 
had  ever  been  known  to  the  Christian  Church;  and 
he  might  have  learned  from  his  master,  St.  Augus- 
tine, that  Aerius,  the  first  person  who  ever  thought 
of  confounding  bishops  and  presbyters,  was  judged 
to  be  a  heretic  for  that  opinion.  And  yet  we  actually 
find  him  asserting,  that  "  by  the  institution  of  Christ, 
priests  and  bishops  were  all  one ;  but  that,  afterwards, 
the  Emperor  divided  them,  and  made  bishops,  lords, 
— and  presbyters,  their  servants  ;1}  and,  again,  that 
"  from  the  faith  of  Scripture,  it  seems  sufficient  that 
there  should  be  presbyters  and  deacons,  holding  the 
stale  and  office  which  Christ  assigned  them  ;  since 
it  appears  that  all  other  orders  and  degrees  have  their 
origin  in  the  pride  of  C&sar."* 

It  seems  quite  clear  that  the  veil,  in  which  he 
wrapped  up  his  better  judgment  against  the  light  of 
history,  was  no  other  than  his  detestation  of  the 
abuses  which  then  dishonoured  the  episcopal  office. 
"  The  ordinances  of  Christ,"  he  says,  in  discussing 
this  subject,  "  are  founded  in  meekness,  in  unity,  in 
charity,  in  contempt  of  riches  and  high  estate."  Of 
these  apostolic  qualities  he  discerned  but  very  faint 
traces  among  the  prelates  of  his  day,  and  therefore 
he  concluded,  that  they  ceuld  not,  even  by  their  office 
and  institution,  be  the  successors  of  the  apostles. 
That  episcopacy  existed  long  before  the  pride  of 
Caesar  meddled  with  the  offices  of  the  Church,  anti- 
quity bears  witness ;  but  the  effect  of  this  testimony 
was,  probably,  wiped  away  from  his  mind,  by  'the 

*  MS.  on  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins.  Cod.  Ric.  Jamesii.  Bibl.  Bodl. 
Trialog.  lib.  iv.  c.  15.  James's  Apology,  p.  31. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  301 

same  "  odd  kind  of  shifting  answer,"  which  moved 
the  indignation  of  Hooker,  when  it  was  produced  by 
the  fanatics  of  the  Holy  Discipline;  namely,  that 
"  the  bishops  which  now  are,  be  not  like  unto  them 
that  were :"  an  argument,  (as  the  venerable  and  judi- 
cious man  remarks,)  which  would  often  be  quite  as 
effective  against  the  legitimate  power  of  kings,  as  the 
order  and  authority  of  bishops.  It  is  truly  wonderful 
that  an  intellect,  disciplined  like  Wiclif's,  in  the 
severity  of  the  Schools,  should,  in  this  instance,  have 
been  unable  to  "  discern  between  the  nature  of 
things,  which  changeth  not,  and  their  outward  and 
variable  accidents."  But  from  this,  as  well  as  from 
various  other  symptoms,  it  is  evident,  that  the  inces- 
sant contemplation  of  existing  corruptions,  had 
wrought  up  his  spirit  into  something  of  a  revolu- 
tionary temper ;  so  that  it  would  have  been  extremely 
unsafe  to  trust  him  With  unlimited  discretion  in  pro* 
securing  the  work  of  ecclesiastical  reformation. 

Respecting  the  Church  itself,  his  no- 
tions are  such  as  all  the  faithful  mem-  1 
&ers  of  our  Establishment  would  do  well  to  keep  in 
ftiind  at  the  present  day.  It  is  lamented  by  one  who 
Aad  imbibed  his  sentiments  and  principles,*  that 
"when  men  speak  of  Holy  Church1,  they  understand 
aiion  prelates  and  priests,  canons  and  friars,  and  all 
men  that  have  crowns,  (tonsures,)  though  they  live 
never  so  cursedly  against  God's  law ;  and  they  clepe 
(call)  not  nor  hold  secular  men  to  be  of  Holy  Church, 
though  they  live  never  so  truly  after  God's  law,  and 
end  in  perfect  charity:"  whereas  the  true  notion  of  a 
Church  comprehends  the  clergy,  the  secular  lords, 
and  the  commons, — the  lay  members,  in  short,  as 
well  as  the  spiritual  orders.  The  evils  arising  from 
this  gross  misconception  are  of  the  most  opposite 
descriptions.  In  Wiclif's  age,  it  invested  the  hier- 

*  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  152,  from  the  Prologue,  <fec.  It  has  been  shown 
above,  that  this  Prologue  is  not  the  work  of  Wiclif  himself.  But  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  it  generally  speaks  his  sentiments.- 

26 


302  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

archy  with  something  like  a  Brahminical  sacro-sanc- 
titv,  and  degraded  the  rest  of  the  community  into  an 
inferior  caste.  In  our  own  times,  it  exhibits  the 
clergy  as  an  order,  in  whose  preservation  the  rest  of 
society  have  but  a  slight  and  ambiguous  interest. 
The  same  error,  according  to  the  varying  complexion 
of  the  times,  on  the  one  hand,  elevates  the  conse- 
crated class  to  an  almost  praeternatural  immunity 
and  power  ;  or,  on  the  other,  places  them  in  most  in- 
jurious disunion  from  the  rest  of  the  social  body, 
with  which,  in  truth,  they  should  be  indissolubly 
bound  up.  It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  the  ec- 
clesiastical establishment  alone  does  not  constitute 
the  Church  ;  and  that  both  the  privileges  and  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  churchmanship  belong  to  the  laity 
as  well  as  to  clergy,  according  to  their  several  op- 
portunities and  stations. 

In  common  with  the  soundest  doctors, 
Church  visible  ne  allows  the  distinction  between  the 

and  ,nv,s,ble. 


The  former  he  calls  the  very  body  of  Christ  ;  the  latter 
his  medlied  (or  mixed)  body  ;  which  includes  men  or- 
dained to  bliss,  and  hypocrites  doomed  to  perdition,* 
His  fanciful  and  nugatory  distribution  of  the  Church 
militant  into  the  clergy,  the  military,  and  the  popu- 
lace,! is  scarcely  worthy  of  notice.  It  would  be  a 
weariness  to  accumulate  passages  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  that  he  postponed  the  authority  of  the 
Church  to  that  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  —  that  he  dis- 
regarded tradition  as  a  rule  of  faith  co-ordinate  with 
the  written  word  —  that  he  maintained  that  all  things 
necessary  to  salvation  might  be  found  in  the  Sacred 
Volume,  and  that  the  oracles  of  God  might  freely  be 
consulted  by  all  Christian  people.  These  opinions  are 
profusely  scattered  throughout  his  writings,  and  were 
finally  embodied  in  the  mightiest  of  all  his  works, 
the  translation  of  the  Bible.  As  for  the  assertion 


Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  152.  t  Ibid.  p.  153. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  303 

that  the  Church  is  of  more  authority  and  credence 
than  the  Gospel,  he  reprobates  it  as  "  a  forecasting 
of  Satan  to  destroy  Holy  Writ  and  the  belief  of 
Christian  men,  by  means  of  Anti-Christ,  and  his 
false  and  worldly  clerks."*  "  Though  we  had  a  hun- 
dred Popes,"  he  tells  us,  "  and  all  the  friars  in  the 
world  were  turned  into  cardinals,  yet  should  we 
trow  more  the  law  of  the  Gospel,  than  all  this  mul- 
titude."! 

There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that,  to 
the  last,  Wiclif  acknowledged  the  sacra-  me™e  sacra' 
ments  of  the  Romish  Church  ;  for  in  one 
of  his  latest  works  he  speaks  of  them  as  seven  in 
number.^  But  then  it  may  be  questioned  Avhether  he 
attached  to  the  word  sacrament,  a  signification  of 
such  deep  importance  and  solemnity  as  we  have  been 
accustomed  to.  He  understands  by  it  "  a  token  that 
may  be  seen,  of  a  thing  which  may  not  be  seen  with 
any  bodily  eye  ;"  but  he  does  not  allow  every  sacra- 
ment to  be  generally  necessary  to  salvation.^  With 
regard  to  Baptism,  he  denies  the  neces-  Ba  tjgm 
sity  of  chrism,  or  of  trine  immersion,  or 
of  any  thing  more  than  the  affusion  of  water.  That 
he  deemed  the  baptism  of  infants  to  be  requisite,  is 
evident  from  his  concession,  that  females  may  be  al- 
lowed to  administer  it  to  children  in  cases  of  urgent 
need :  but  he  abstains  from  any  presumptuous  deter- 
mination respecting  the  future  condition  of  infants 
unbaptized.  As  a  caution  against  formality  or  su- 
perstition, he  warns  men  not  to  seek  the  worship  of 
God  too  little,  and  their  own  too  much ;  and  adds, 
that  priests  must  minister  the  outward  token ;  but 
that  the  spiritual  grace  within,  which  we  see  not,  is 
ministered  to  us  of  God,  who  is  the  priest  and  bishop 
of  our  souls.  It  is  he  alone  that  christeneth  the  soul, 
that  is,  washeth  it  from  the  uncleanness  of  all  manner 

*  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  155. 

t  James's  Apol.  c.  1.  s.  2.     See  also  Vaugh.  vol  ii.  p.  212—317. 

J  Trialog.  iv.  1.  §  Lewis,  c.  viii.  165.  »   .- 


304  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

of  sin  ;  and  therefore  children,  and  sometiraes  men 
and  women,  are  christened  with  water.* 

.  Of  Confirmation  he  speaks  as  a  rite, 

'  the  importance  of  which  has  been  much 
exaggerated,  to  the  disparagement  of  more  worthy 
and  needful  sacraments.^  The  ceremonies  with  which 
it  was  loaded,  he  condemns  as  unscriptural ;  professes 
himself  unable  to  see  why  this  sacrament  should  be 
reserved  to  Csesarean  prelates  ;  and  suggests  that  the 
short  and  trifling  Confirmation  performed  by  them, 
together  with  its  pompous  mummery,  must,  probably, 
have  been  introduced  by  the  instigation  of  the  devil, 
for  the  purpose  of  deluding  the  people,  and  advancing 
the  importance  and  dignity  of  the  Episcopal  order 4 
It  is  scarcely  possible  to  listen  to  this  almost  fanatical 
extravagance  without  astonishment,  and  even  dis- 
gust. In  perusing  this  passage,  we  could  well  nigh 
fancy  that  we  had  before  us  the  very  words  of  those 
intractable  and  self-willed  spirits  who,  two  centuries 
later,  were  demolished  by  the  learning,  the  sanctity, 
and  the  incomparable  irony  of  Hooker.^  Awful,  in- 
deed, is  the  responsibility  of  those,  who,  by  their 
corruptions  and  perversions,  have  ever  made  the  fra- 
grance of  truth  to  be  abhorred !  Sacrament,  or  no 
sacrament,  the  rite  of  Confirmation,  administered  by 
bishops,  has  the  sanction  of  Scripture,  followed  up 
by  the  testimony  of  the  most  venerable  fathers,  and 
by  the  immemorial  usage  of  Christendom.  And,  yet, 
such  was  the  dishonour  brought  upon  it  by  frivolous 
and  superstitious  vanities,  that,  in  the  eyes  of  Wiclif, 
it  seemed  as  little  better  than  a  worthless  and  unholy 
thing! 

In   what  precise   sense  it  was   that 
Wiclif  ascribed  the  sacramental  charac- 
ter to  absolution  and  penance,  it  would  be  very  diffi- 
cult to  say.     The  act  of  confession  to  an  intelligent 

•  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  166, 167. 

t  Sentence  of  Curse,  «fcc.  c.  vii.    Vaugh.  vol.  ii.  p.  308. 

}  Trialog.  iv.  14.    ^ewis,  c.  viii.  p.  167.  §  Book  v.  e.  66. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  305 

and  holy  minister,  accompanied  by  sincere  contrition, 
and  all  the  fruits  meet  for  repentance,  were,  unques- 
tionably, regarded  by  him  as  among  the  most  profita- 
ble and  salutary  of  religious  duties.*5  And  since  un- 
feigned penitence  for  sin  is,  undoubtedly,  necessary 
to  salvation,  this  mode  of  expressing  sorrow,  and 
seeking  pardon,  might  be  allowed  by  him  to  retain 
its  place  among  the  sacraments  of  the  Church.  It  is, 
however,  beyond  dispute  that  he  deemed  the  exercise 
of  the  sacerdotal  office  in  this  solemnity  to  be  a 
matter  of  very  subordinate  importance.  In  making 
themselves  the  principal  parties  in  assorting,  or  absolv- 
ing, the  sinner,  he  affirmed,  that  the  priesthood  were 
blasphemers  against  the  Father  of  heaven,  to  whom 
alone  belongs  the  power  of  remission.  The  function 
of  the  priest  he  considered  to  be  purely  ministerial 
and  declaratory.  They  are  "vicars  and  messengers," 
ordained  to  testify  that  God  grants  absolution  to  the 
truly  penitent :  and  when  they  take  upon  themselves 
to  pronounce  judicially  the  sacramental  absolution, 
they  are,  in  his  judgment,  usurpers  of  God's  majesty, 
deceivers  of  the  people,  and  encouragers  of  vice.f 
And  he  distinctly  asserts,  that  "in  schrift,  though 
we  tell  our  sins  to  a  priest,  and  he  put  us  on  penance, 
we  are  assoiled  never  the  rather,  but  if  (unless)  God, 
who  is  the  priest  of  souls,  see  that  we  sorrow  with 
all  our  hearts  for  our  sins,  and  that  we  be  in  full 
purpose  and  will  to  leave  them  for  ever  after. "J 

Episcopal  Ordination,  he  expressly  re-     Ordination 
cognises   as   a  sacramental  ordinance: 
but  he  seems  to  question  whether  it  imprints  an  in- 
delible character.    The  nature,  or,  as  he  terms  it,  the 
quiddity  of  this  character,  he  tells  us,  is  a  matter  of 
,much  dispute :  and  he  therefore  prays,  that  God  would 
ie  pleased  to  confer  on  the  clergy  some  further  grace ; 
the  cJiaracter  in  question  being  found  in  such  a  mul- 

••  Great  Sentence  of  Curse,  <fcc.  c.  vi.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  17L 
t  Of  Prelates,  MS.  43.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  167,  168. 
±  Of  the  Seven  Sacrament*.  MS.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  168. 
26* 


306  LITE    OF   WICLIF. 

titude  of  instances,  to  be  useless  and  ineffective.  In 
speaking  on  this  subject,  he  seizes  the  opportunity  of 
reprobating  the  multiplied  and  intolerable  exactions 
which  were  practised  in  conferring  the  sacerdotal 
office,*  and  wnich  gave  to  the  transaction  an  appear- 
ance of  Simoniacal  trafficking. 

.  His  speculations  respecting  the  sacra- 

ment of  matrimony  are  strangely  subtle 
and  fantastical.  He  conceives  it  to  have  been  or- 
dained, not  only  for  the  perpetuation  of  mankind 
until  the  day  of  doom,  and  for  the  suppression  of 
licentious  intercourse,  but  also  for  the  restoration  and 
fulfilment  of  the  multitude  of  angels  damned  for  pride, 
and  the  completion  of  the  number  of  the  saints  in 
heaven. t  He  condemns  the  practises  of  the  courts 
which  pronounce  matrimony  valid  from  words  of  con- 
sent ;  apparently  forgetting  that  the  secrej  intention, 
is  hidden  from  human  j  udges,  who  are  able  to  decide 
only  from  overt  acts,  and  that,  if  the  ordinance  is  to 
be  considered  as  sacramental,  it  would,  of  course,  re? 
quire  a  sensible  and  outward  sign.t  He  seems  to 
question  the  application  of  the  Levitical  prohibitions 
to  Christian  societies,  and  even  to  contend  for  the 
restoration  of  the  usages  prevalent  in  the  earliest 
ages  of  the  world :  marriage,  within  the  very  closest 
degrees  of  propinquity,  being,  in  his  opinion,  con- 
demned only  by  arbitrary  human  maxims,  and  insti- 
tutions.^ This  unnatural  and  unscriptural  opinion 

*  There  is  one  of  these  enormities  which  seems,  more  especially,  to 
move  his  virtuous  indignation.  Not  only  were  exorbitant  gratuities  ex- 
;iacted  for  the  Letters  of  Orders,  but  the  authorized  officiating  barber  was, 
usually,  so  unconscionable  in  his  demands  for  executing  the^  clerical  ton- 
sure, that  a  man,  he  complains,  might  actually  be  shaved  and  clipped  for 
a  whole  year  together,  by  an  ordinary  practitioner,  for  the  same  sum  that 
was  extorted  by  the  official  artist  on  this  one  occasion.  This,  says  Wiclif, 
is  a  foul  extortion !  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  157. 

t  Of  Wedded  Men  and  Wives,  MS.  c.  i.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  171. 

t  Trialogus,  iv.  22.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  172. 

§  Tempore  primi  hominis,  fratres  et  sorores  fuerunt,  ex  ordinatione 
divina,  talker  conjugati :  et  tempore  Patriarcharum,  ut  Abraham,  Isaac, 
et  talium,  satis  propinquS  cognati.  Nee  euperest  ratio,  quare  non  sic 
Jiccret  hodifcj  nisi  humana  ordinatio,  (jute  dicit  non  solum  ex  cognatione, 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  307 

.can  be  ascribed  to  nothing  but  that  species  of  infatu- 
ation, which  is  found,  occasionally,  to  seize  on  minds 
of  great  energy,  when  once  they  become  heated  with 
the  work  of  innovation.  The  notion  is  so  monstrous, 
that  it  painfully  weakens  our  reliance  on  his  judg- 
ment. It  may  be  said,  almost,  to  resemble  the  dead 
fly,  which  giveth  an  evil  savour  to  a  whole  vessel  of 
.the  most  precious  ointment. 

Respecting  the  Eucharist,  it  is,  per-  TheEuchariBt 
haps,  more  easy  to  state  with  precision 
what  he  did  not  believe  than  what  he  did.  He  did 
not  believe  that  the  substance  of  Christ's  body  was 
miraculously  substituted  for  that  of  the  bread.  He 
did  not  believe  in  any  separation  of  accidents  or 
.qualities,  from  their  proper  subject.  He  did  not  be* 
lieve,  in  short,  that  the  visible  emblems  ceased  to 
retain  their  own  nature  after  the  words  of  consecra- 
jion.  But  that  some  sort  of  change  was  effected,  he 
.assuredly  did  believe ;  and  that  this  change  was  of 
sufficient  importance  to  warrant  us  in  affirming  that 
'Christ's  body  is  really  present  in  the  Eucharist.  The 
precise  manner  of  this  presence  he  does  not  under- 
take to  define;  but  contents  himself  with  vaguely 
describing  it  as  figurative  or  sacramental :  and  he 
conceives  that  many  things  are  involved  in  this  mys- 
terious subject,  which  form  no  part  of  necessary  faith, 
and  which  should  neither  be  granted  nor  denied,  but 
treated  rather  as  matter  of  humble  and  reverent  con- 
jecture.* One  thing,  however,  appears  indisputable ; 
namely,  that  whatever  may  have  been  the  perplexity 
of  his  opinions,  he  cannot,  without  the  most  resolute 
perversion,  be  charged  with  want  of  integrity  or  firm- 
ness, when  called  upon  to  support  them  in  the  face  of 
the  world. 

The  number  of  seven  sacraments  can?-  Extreme  Uno 
not  be  made  up  without  admitting  ex-  tion- 

sed  ex  affinitate,  amorem  inter  homines  dilatari :  et  causa  haec  hominum 
est  nimis  debilis.    Trialogus,  lib.  iv.  c.  20,  21.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  173. 
*  Seven  Deadly  Sins,  MS,  Cod.  James.    Also,  James's  Apol.  c.  vii. 


308  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

treme  unction  among  them :  and  yet  Wiclif  has  been 
charged  with  the  heresy  of  denying  to  that  rite  the 
sacramental  character.*  The  truth  probably  is,  that 
he  suffered  it  to  remain  on  the  list  of  sacraments, 
without  allowing  it  to  be  requisite  to  salvation ;  for 
we  have  seen  that  he  did  not  consider  all  the  sacra- 
ments to  be  of  equal  necessity  and  worthiness. 
Celibacy  of  the  The  compulsory  celibacy  of  the  cler- 
ciergy.  gv  and  the  forcible  imposition  of  mo- 

nastic vows,  He  reprobates  in  the  strongest  terms, 
as  practices  tending  to  flagitious  corruption  of  man- 
ners, f     Prudent  and  "measurable"  fasting  he  held  to 
Fastin°,        be  salutary.     But  abstinence  from  flesh, 

only  to  indulge  in  fish,  he  derides  as  fool- 
fasting,  and  as  nothing  better  than  another  form  of 
gluttony :  and  fasting  beyond  the  powers  of  nature, 
he  censures  as  a  mistaken  and  presumptuous  emula- 
lation  of  Elias  or  of  Christ4  Ceremonies,  he  allows 
Ceremonies  to  ^e  use^u^>  as  sensible  signs  by  which 

men  may  be  led  into  the  way  of  happi- 
ness, but  deprecates  the  cumbrous  and  fantastic 
bravery, — the  "  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance," — of 
the  existing  ritual ;  and  he  complains  that  the  slight- 
est neglect  of  these  beggarly  elements  was  more 
dreaded  than  the  breach  of  God's  commandments. "$ 
Among  the  many  "  fretful  and  angry 
mtfm  sentences  "  which  fell  from  Wiclif,  there 
are  few  which  savour  more  strongly  of  fanatical  aus- 
terity, than  those  which  he  has  bestowed  on  the  vocal 
and  instrumental  Psalmody  of  the  Church.  Nothing 
appears  more  vehemently  to  have  moved  his  bile  than 
what  he  is  pleased  to  term  the  "  novelrie  of  song," 
which  had  then  been  introduced  into  our  religious 
services.  He  loudly  complains  that  it  not  only  di- 

*  James's  ApoL  c.  viii.  s.  4. 

t  Order  of  Priesthood,  MS.  c.  ix.    Wedded  Men,  &c.  MS.    Lewis, 
c.  viii.  p.  163,  164.    James's  Apol.  c.  viii.  s.  12,  13. 
J  James's  Apol.  c.  viii.  s.  13. 
5  Trialogus,  iv.  11.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  174. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  309 

verted  the  attention  both  of  priest  and  worshipper 
from  their  devotional  duties,  but  was  maintained  at 
an  enormous  cost,  which  might  be  applied  to  much 
better  purposes.  Such,  according  to  his  representa- 
tion, was  the  frivolity  and  artifice  of  these  perform- 
ances, that  "  it's  small  breking  stirred  vain  men  to 
dauncing  more  than  mourning :"  and  he  warns  the 
"  fools"  who  delight  in  it,  that  they  "  shulden  dread 
the  sharp  words  of  Austin,  that  saith,  As  oft  as  the 
song  liketh  me  more  than  doth  the  sentence  sung,  so 
oft  I  confess  that  I  sin  grievously."  The  temple  ser- 
vices of  the  old  law  he  rejects  as  models  for  the  Chris- 
tian worship,  the  best  distinctions  of  which  are  its 
simplicity  and  spirituality.  "And  if,"  he  observes, 
"  they  seyn  that  angels  hearen  God  by  song  in  hea- 
ven, seye  that  we  kunnen  not  that  song  :  they  ben  in 
full  victory  of  their  enemies ;  but  we  ben  in  perilous 
battle,  and  in  the  vally  of  weeping  and  mourning; 
and  our  song  letteth  us  fro  better  occupation,  and 
stirreth  us  to  many  great  sins,  and  to  forget  our- 
selves. But  our  fleshly  people  hath  more  liking  in 
their  bodily  ears,  in  such  knacking  and  tattering,  than 
in  hearing  of  God's  law,  or  speaking  of  bliss  in  hea- 
ven   When  there  ben  fourty  or  fifty  in  a  quire, 

three  or  four  proud  and  lecherous  lorels*  shullen, 
knack  the  most  devout  service,  that  no  man  shall 
hear  the  sentence,  and  all  other  shullen  be  dumb,  and 
looken  on  them,  as  fools.  And  then,  strumpets  and 
thieves  praisen  Sire  Jack,  or  Hobb,  and  William  the 
proud  Clerk,  how  small  they  knacken  their  notes,  and 
seyn  that  they  serven  well  God  and  Holy  Church ; 
when  they  despisen  God  in  his  face,  and  letten  other 
Christen  men  of  their  devotion  and  compunction, 
and  stirren  them  to  worldly  vanity.  And  thus  the 
true  service  of  God  is  letted,  and  this  vain  knacking-, 
for  our  jollity  and  pride,  is  praised  above  the  moon,"t 

"  Worthless  fellows. 

t  Of  Prelates,  c.  xi.  cited  in  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  1C2,  163. 


310  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

Here,  again,  we  cannot  well  avoid  to  recognise  the 
visitation  of  the  same  spirit,  which,  in  after  times, 
suggested,  that  the  practice  of  chanting  derived  its 
authority  from  the  contrivance  of  the  Devil ;  by 
whose  device  it  was,  that  this  mode  of  singing  was 
accounted  as  an  invention  of  Ignatius,  or  an  imita- 
tion of  the  angels  of  heaven !  If  the  celebration  of 
God's  holy  name  were  marred  and  dishonoured,  in 
Wiclif 's  days,  by  unbecoming  exhibitions  of  musical 
skill,  the  correction  of  the  abuse  was,  doubtless,  a 
worthy  object  of  his  anxiety.  His  language,  how- 
ever, leaves  us  under  the  impression,  that  he  regarded 
all  musical  performance  as  an  abomination,  which 
ought  to  be  ruthlessly  banished  from  our  public  wor- 
ship. "  In  Church  music,"  says  a  Reformer  of  a 
of  a  very  different  complexion,  "  curiosity  and  osten- 
tation of  art, — wanton,  light,  or  unsuitable  harmony, 
— doth  rather  blemish  and  disgrace  that  we  do,  than 
add  either  beauty  or  furtherance  unto  it.  On  the 
other  side,  the  faults  prevented,  the  force  and  efficacy 
of  the  thing  itself, — when  it  drowneth  not  utterly, 
but  fitly  suiteth  with  matter  altogether  sounding  to 
the  praise  of  God,  is,  in  truth,  most  admirable ;  and 
doth  much  edify, — if  not  the  understanding,  because 
it  teacheth  not, — yet,  surely,  the  affection,  because 
therein  it  worketh  much.  They  must  have  hearts 
very  dry  and  tough,  from  whom  the  melody  of  the 
Psalms  doth  not,  sometime,  draw  that,  wherein  a 
mind,  religiously  affected,  delighteth."* 

It  ought  to  be  mentioned  to  the  honour  of  Wiclif 's 
sagacity  and  hardihood  of  mind,  that  he  condemned 
Judicial  astro-  the  insane  vanities  of  judicial  astro- 
logy-  logy-  He  distinctly  affirmed,  that  the 

science  of  the  astrologer  was  destitute  of  all  founda- 
tion ;  that  all  his  maxims  and  opinions  rested  on  no 
substratum  of  knowledge,!  To  venture  on  such  an 
assertion,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  must  have  re- 

•  Hooker,  b.  v.  s.  53.  t  Lewis,  p.  174.    Trialogus,  lib.  ii.  c.  15. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  311 

quired  no  ordinary  exercise  of  intrepidity  and  judg- 
ment. 

It  will  easily  be  believed,  that  the  Notions  impu. 
opinions  of  an  innovator,  like  Wiclif,  ted  to  Wiclif, 
surrounded  as  he  was  by  exasperated  and  ^fyJ£fDe™^ 
watchful  adversaries,  would  be  exposed  and  that  every 
to  gross  exaggeration  and  perversion,  creature  is  God. 
He,  accordingly,  makes  frequent  complaint,  that 
notions  were  constantly  ascribed  to  him,  which,  in 
fact,  he  never  entertained.  Of  these,  there  is  one  so 
extravagantly  profane,  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
by  what  process  of  torture  it  can  have  been  extracted 
from  his  writings.  We  have  seen,  above,  that  among 
the  articles  preferred  against  him  at  Oxford,  he  is 
charged  with  maintaining,  that  God  could  not  choose 
but  obey  the  Devil !  And  this  charge,  it  appears,  has 
since  been  repeated  by  Bellarmine,  and  the  Jesuit 
Gretser;  who,  likewise  impute  to  him  another  no- 
tion scarcely  less  monstrous,  that  every  creature  is 
God.  This  latter  accusation  must,  doubtless,  have 
been  drawn  from  certain  abstruse  metaphysical 
speculations  of  Wiclif 's,  in  which  he  intimates,  that 
all  the  laws  of  truth,  residing  in  the  Divine  Essence, 
are  no  other  than  God  himself;  nay,  that  every  thing 
in  the  universe,  considered  with  reference  to  its  in- 
telligible essence,  is  identified  with  the  Deity.*  It 
is  beyond  my  power  to  develope  these  obscure  ima- 
ginings ;  but  to  suppose  that  they  were  intended  by 
Wiclif  to  involve  the  unqualified  impieties  and  ab- 
surdities of  Pantheism,  is,  in  effect,  to  maintain  that 
a  few  sentences  of  abstract  scholastic  disquisition  are 
to  obliterate  the  testimony  of  a  whole  life.  Surely, 
no  synod  of  Inquisitors  would  burn  a  poet  for  saying, 
that  all  the  glorious  phenomena  of  nature  "  are  but 
the  varied  God."  And,  if  so,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
see  why  the  displeasure,  even  of  the  soundest  divines, 

*  primes  veritatis  leges  in  Essentia  Divina,  sicut  omnia,  sunt  Deus. 
Again:  Omnisres,  secundumesse  intellisnbile,  est  Deus.— Expos. DecaL 
cited  in  James's  Apology,  c.  ix.  10th  and  llth  Objections. 


312  LIFE   OF   W1CLIF. 

should  rise  against  a   Christian   philosopher,  who 
might  contemplate  a  pervading  Deity  in  the  essence 
of  all  created  things.     As  for  the  position,  that  God 
must  obey  the  Devil,  it  is  the  raving  of  a  maniac, 
rather  than  the  aberration  of  a  heretic.     In  what 
part  of  Wiclif  's  writings  his  enemies  professed  to 
read  this  blasphemy,  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover. 
He  says,  indeed,  that  God  is  a  title  which  is  some- 
limes  used  in  an  absolute  sense,  at  other  times  in  a 
sense  more  qualified.     It  is  properly  applied  only  to 
the  Lord  of  the  universe:  it  is,  however,  often  intro- 
duced to  signify  any  other  object  which  may  usurp 
the  adoration  and  service  that  is  due  to  Him  alone  ;* 
(as  when  the  commandment  says,  Thou  shah  have 
none  other  Gods  but  me :)  and  over  such  a  God  as  this, 
it  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  Devil  may  be  supposed 
to  exercise  a  very  ligitimate  dominion.     I  have  seen 
no  other  passage  but  this  produced  as  the  possible' 
foundation  for  the  charge  in  question  ;  and  one  would" 
imagine,  that  it  must  surpass  even  the  subtlety  and'1 
the  malice  of  a  Jesuit,  to  infer  from  the  words  "  a  con-* 
elusion  so  foul  and  irreligious,"  that,  as  Dr. -James4' 
remarks,  "  scarcely  any  Devil  of  hell  Would  dare  to-' 
utter  it." 

Nothing  could  well  be  more  useless,  than  to  exa-; 
mine,  minutely,  all  the  perversions  by  which  some  of 
the  most  blameless  of  Wiclif 's  principles  have  been 
rendered  questionable  or  odious.  There  are,  however, 
some  of  his  opinions  which  demand  a  more  attentive 
notice,  because  they  have  tended  to  fix  upon  him  the 
imputation  of  a  deliberate  revolutionist  and  spoliator. 
The  course  of  our  narrative  has  already  brought  this 
department  of  his  speculations  under  occasional  re- 
vie\v  :  and  the  reader  will  recollect,  that  any  attempt 
to  vindicate  the  language,  which  was  sometimes  dic- 
tated by  his  burning  zeal  for  improvement,  has  been 

*  Dei  accept io  duplex  ;  absolute,  Dominus  Dominonim  :  quando  con- 
trahitur,  vel  specificatur,  per  signum  detrahens,  significat  quodcunque 
benum  quod  quis  plus  diligit.  Expos.  Decal.  cited  by  James.  Ibid. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  31'3 

studiously  disclaimed.  Of  the  positions  ascribed  to 
him,  the  most  formidable  is — that  domi- 
nion is  founded  on  grace  ;  a  maxim  which  aST  in  °  grac? 
fanaticism  might  inscribe  upon  its  ban-  how  understood 
ners;  an  oracle  which,  taken  to  the  let-  HwSSK^ 
ter,  cries  havoc  in-,  the  ears  of  the  elect, 
and  would  soon  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war  and  anarchy 
upon  the  world.  This  watchword  of  rebellion  has 
been  described  by  a  modern  historian,  as  the  cardinal 
and  favourite  position  of  the  Reformer ;  a  charge 
which,  if  clearly  established,  would  be  sufficient  to  fix 
dishonour  on  his  memory,  in  the  estimation  of  every 
friend  of  social  order.  Now,  in  considering  this  im- 
putation, it  must,  in  the  first  place,  be  recollected, 
that  in  his  English  writings,  designed  for  the  purposes 
of  popular  instruction,  there  are  not  more  than  two 
or  three  passages  in  which  the  slightest  allusion  to 
this  dangerous  maxim  is  to  be  found  :*  and,  secondly, 
that  only  one  passage  from  his  other  compositions, 
has  ever  been  produced  by  his  accusers,  in  support 
of  the  charge ;  and  even  this  is  expressed  by  him  in 
far  too  guarded  and  moderate  a  manner  to  inflict  dis- 
turbance on  any  mind,  which  was  not  already  pre- 
pared to  find  a  heretical  opinion.!  He  there  observes, 
that,  "  as  Christ,  by  the  title  of  original  righteousness, 
was  master  of  all  the  possessions  of  theVorld,  even 
so  all  things  belong  to  the  just,  by  the  grace  or  favour 
of  Christ."  But,  then,  far  from  making  a  dangerous 
use  of  this  maxim,  he  immediately  adds,  that,  "  with 
this  title  of  grace  the  just  must  rest  content.  They 

*  I  assert  this  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Vaughan,  who  speaks  with  the 
confidence  of  one  who  has  painfully  examined  all  the  writings  of  Wiclif, 
whether  in  manuscript,  or  in  print. 

t  "Titulo  originalis  justitiae  habuit  Christus  omnia  bona  mundi ;  ut 

saspe  declarat  Augustinus, — illo  titulo,  vel  titulo  gratiae,  justorum  sunt 

omnia ;  sed  longe  ab  illo  titulo  civilis  possessio.    Unde  Christus  et  sui 

Apostoli,  spretadominatione  civili,  fuerunt  de  habitione  pur£  ;  secundum 

ilium  titulum  contentati.    Ideo  regula  Christi  est,  quae  (quod  ?)  nullus 

discipulorum  suorum  prczsumat  pro  temporalibus  suis  contendere  ; 

'  ut  patet,  Matth.  vi.  qui  aufert  qu&  tua  sunt  ne  repetas,    Sed  longfe 

snnt  leges  civiles,  et  consuetudo  dominantium,  ab  ilia  sententia."    Tna- 

log.  lib.  iv.  Vauehan,  vol.  ii.  p.  235,  note  6. 

27 


314  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

maybe  satisfied  that  the  world  is  theirs;  but  they 
must  on  no  account  whatever  presume  to  enforce  their 
right  by  any  worldly  means ;  for  the  law  of  Christ 
expressly  forbids  his  disciples  to  contend  for  temporal 
things,  nowever  clearly  and  rightfully  their  own." 
Surely  the  lords  of  the  earth  might  hear,  with  pro- 
found composure,  a  claim  to  all  the  good  things  in  it, 
provided  it  were  accompanied  by  a  law,  which  posi- 
tively forbade  the  claimants  to  take  a  single  step 
towards  the  enforcement  of  their  visionary  right. 
Nothing  could  well  be  less  alarming  than  the  doc- 
trine in  question,  as  thus  guarded  and  qualified — 
not!) ing  which  could  afford  less  ground  for  the  suspi- 
cion that  the  holder  of  it  was  to  be  dreaded  as  a 
political  incendiary ! 

It  is  remarkable,  that  St.  Augustine  has  expressed 
himself  on  this  matter  with  much  less  reserve  than 
Wiclif ;  for  he  says,  broadly,  that  every  thing  which 
is  unworthily  possessed,  does  not  rightfully  belong  to 
the  possessor ;  and  that  every  thing  is  unworthily 
possessed,  which  is  unworthily  used :  that  the  whole 
world  is  the  portion  of  the  faithful  man ;  but  that 
the  unfaithful  hath  no  just  title  to  a  single  penny.* 
And  yet,  who  ever  seriously  imagined  that  the  Bishop 
of  Hippo  intended  to  proclaim  to  the  saints  a  crusade 
against  wicked  rich  men,  as  having  forfeited,  by  their 
vices,  all  title  to  their  possessions  ? 

*  Omne  quod  mate  possidetur,  alienum  est ;  male"  antem  possidet  qui 
malfc  utitur ;  fideli  homini  totus  mundus  divitiarum  est,  infiueli  nee  obo- 
lus.  See  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  142.  This  notion,  it  seems,  had  been  adopted 
by  the  Albigenses :  but,  whatever  may  be  its  demerits,  it  is  with  a  very 
bad  grace  that  the  Papists  affected  to  reprobate  it,  professing,  as  they  did, 
a  doctrine  still  more  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  mankind ;  namely,  that 
the  lives  and  sceptres  of  kings  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  Pope.  "  That  do- 
minion is  founded  in  grace,"  says  Fuller,  "seemeth  to  be  the  very  opinion 
of  the  Albigenses  :  yea,  it  hangeth  as  yet  in  the  Schools  upon  the  file,  as 
a  thing  disputable,  finding  many  favourers.  But  grant  it  a  great  error — 
(for  wicked  men  shall  be  arraigned  before  God,  not  as  usurpers,  but  as 
tyrants ;  not  for  not  having  right,  but  for  not  right  using  the  creature,) — 
yet  herein  they  proceeded  not  so  far  as  the  Papists  now-a-days,  to  un- 
throne and  depose  excommunicated  princes :  so  that  they  who  do  most 
accuse  them,  have  least  cause  to  do  so."  Fuller,  Holy  War,  b.  iii.  c.  20. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  315 

It  is,  nevertheless,  very  greatly  to  be  wished,  that 
Wiclif,  and  all  other  writers,  had  rigidly  abstained 
from  language,  which,  in  spite  of  every  qualification 
attached  to  it,  was  liable  to  the  most  mischievous 
perversion.  It  might  easily  have  been  foreseen,  that 
the  maxim  itself  would  speedily  get  abroad,  without 
the  explanatory  words,  which  alone  could  make  it 
innocent ;  that  the  title  of  the  just  would  be  remem- 
bered, and  the  prohibition  to  enforce  it  forgotten.  It 
will  immediately  occur  to  every  one,  that  the  princi- 
ple was  actually  thus  abused,  long  afterwards,  by  the 
German  Anabaptists,  when  they  maintained,  that 
the  time  was  come  for  the  meek  ones  to  inherit  the 
earth,  their  title  thereto  being  the  same  as  that  by 
which  the  Israelites  seized  the  property  of  the  wicked 
Egyptians.  Such  wresting  of  the  language  of  Scrip- 
ture, at  all  times  extremely  perilous, — becomes  objec- 
tionable, in  a  tenfold  degree,  when  it  assumes  the 
form  of  a  commentary  on  existing  institutions,  or 
even  a  denunciation  of  existing  abuses.  Neither  can 
it  safely  be  denied,  that  the  words  of  Wiclif,  in  the 
mouth  of  many  of  his  more  ignorant  followers,  may 
have  helped  to  impart  something  of  a  revolutionary 
character  to  the  spirit  of  Lollardism,  and  to  give  a 
pernicious  currency  to  the  principle,  that  the  saints 
are  the  only  true  and  legitimate  proprietors  of  all 
things.  But  that  he  himself  actually  designed,  or 
contemplated  any  such  extreme  result,  is,  to  me, 
absolutely  incredible.  All  that  we  demand  for  him 
is,  that  he  may  stand  or  fall— not  by  a 
scholastic  speculation,  or  an  adventur-  CipiestUof  'civil 
ous  speech, — but  by  the  general  tenor  obedience  faith- 
of  his  popular  teaching.  And  what  f$lfa$£™* 
that  teaching  was  may  be  judged  from 
the  following  passage,  in  which  he  enforces,  with  the 
deepest  urgency,  the  scriptural  principles  of  civil 
obedience. 

"  Christ,"  says  he,  "  and  his  apostles  weren  most 
obeisant  to  kings  and  lords,  and  taughten  all  men  to 


316  LIFE   OF   WICLTF. 

be  suget  to  them,  and  serve  them  truly  and  wilfully 
in  bodily  works  and  tribute,  and  dread  them  and 

worship  them  before  all  other  men. Jesu  Christ 

paid  tribute  to  emperor,  and  commanded  men  to  pay 
him  tribute.  And  St.  Peter  commandeth,  in  God's 
name,  Christen  men  to  be  suget  to  every  creature  of 
-man,  either  to  king  as  more  high  than  other,  either 
to  dukes  as  sent  of  him  to  the  vengeance  of  misdoers, 
and  praising  of  good  men.  Also  St.  Paul  command- 
eth, by  auctority  of  God,  that  every  soul  be  suget  to 
higher  powers,  for  there  is  no  power  but  of  God. 
Princes  ben  not  to  the  dread  of  good  work  but  of  evil 
work.  Wilt  thou  not  dread  the  potestate?  do  good, 
and  thou  shalt  have  praising  thereof.  For  he  is  God's 
minister  to  them  to  good.  Sothly  if  thou  hast  don 
evil,  dread  thou,  for  he  beareth  not  the  sword  without 
cause  ;  for  he  is  God's  minister,  venger  into  wrath  to 
him  that  doth  evil.  Therefore  through  need  be  ye 
suget  not  only  for  wrath  but  for  conscience.  Pay  to 
all  men  debts,  both  tribute,  and  custom  for  things 
born  about  in  the  lond,  and  dread  and  honour  and 
love.  And  our  Saviour  Jesu  Christ  suffered  mekely 
painful  death  of  Pilate,  not  excusing  him  for  his  juris- 
diction by  his  Clergy.  And  St.  Paul  profered  him 
ready  to  suffer  death  by  doom  of  the  emperor's  jus- 
tice, if  he  were  worthy  to  death,  as  deeds  of  the  apos- 
tles techen."*  Accordingly  he  blames  the  clergy  of 
his  time  for  being  traitors  to  kings  and  lords  in  deny- 
ing this  obedience,  because  they  pleaded  to  be  exempt 
from  the  king's  jurisdiction  and  chastising,  and 
refused  "  to  pay  any  subsidie,  or  tax,  or  helping  of 
our  king  and  our  rewme,  without  leave  and  assent 
of  the  worldly  priest  of  Rome."  Well,  therefore, 
might  Wiclif  say  of  himself  and  his  followers,  that 
they  "  destroien  most,  by  God's  law,  rebelty  of  ser- 
vants agenst  lords,  and  charge  servants  to  be  suget, 
.though  lords  be  tyrants." 

*  Great  Sentence  of  Curse  Expounded.    MS.  c.  1 1 . 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  317 

Again,  Wiclif  saw  himself  surrounded  on  all  sides, 
by  such  profligacy  and  oppression  as  seemed  to  inti- 
mate that  they  who  called  themselves  the  excellent 
of  the  earth,  had  well  nigh  lost  all  remembrance  of 
the  tenure  by  which  men  hold  their  possessions  or 
their  privileges  at  the  hand  of  God.  And  he  is  ac- 
cused of  imbodying  his  sense  of  these  enormities 
in  the  following  maxim, — "  that  no  one  in  mortal  sin 
hath  a  true  dominion  over  any  of  the  creatures  apud 
Deum,  in  the  sight  of  God :  but  deserves  to  be  called 
a  tyrant  and  a  robber,  although,  by  reason  of  some 
human  law,  he  retain  the  name  of  ting,  or  prince,  or 
lord."  This  is  the  language  of  his  Trialogus,  as 
represented  by  his  adversary  Wodford  :*  and  it  is, 
doubtless,  quite  in  harmony  with  what  has  fallen  from 
him  in  one  of  his  English  compositions.  If  tem- 
poral lords  do  wrongs  and  extortions  to  the  people, 
they  ben  traitors  to  God  and  his  people,  and  tyrants 
of  Anti-Christ."!  These,  undoubtedly,  are  very  bitter 
words.  But  they  are  not  much  more  bitter  than  re- 
ligion, and  morality,  and  even  history,  have  some- 
times bestowed  on  men  who  were  seated  on  the  high 
places  of  the  earth,  and  whose  vices  and  oppressions 
have  blackened  the  annals  of  the  world.  Besides,  it 
must  again  be  recollected,  that,  although  the  rights 
of  the  great  might  be  forfeited  by  abuse,  in  the  righ- 
teous estimate  of  God;  the  just,  according  to  Wiclif, 
were  in  no  condition  to  take  advantage  of  the  for- 
feiture, or  to  help  themselves  to  the  possessions  of 
the  delinquents.  The  disciples  of  Christ,  he  tells  us, 
are  positively  forbidden  even  to  seek  their  own,  by 
any  secular  means ;  of  course,  therefore,  they  could 
never  be  warranted  in  aggressions  upon  the  dominion 
or  the  property  of  the  most  worthless  of  mankind. 
However  keen  may  be  the  sting  of  his  expressions, 
they  were  put  forth  by  one  who  was  perpetually  ex- 
horting his  own  followers  to  abstinence  from  all 

*  Adversus  ,1.  Wiclefum.    See  Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  142. 
t  Ecclesiae  Regimen.    Lewis,  c.  viii.  p.  142. 

27* 


318  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

contention  about  worldly  matters.  Who  can  believe 
that  it  was  his  design  to  encourage  the  violation  of 
that  law,  which  commands  us  to  render  unto  all  their 
due,  when  we  hear  him  uttering  such  complaints  as 
these?  "Prelates  slander  poor  priests,  and  other 
Christian  men,  saying  they  will  not  obey  their  sove- 
reign, nor  fear  the  curse,  nor  keep  the  laws,  but 
despise  all  things  that  are  not  to  their  liking,  and  that 
they  are,  therefore,  worse  than  Jews  or  Pagans  ;  and 
that  all  lords  and  prelates,  and  mighty  men,  should 
destroy  them,  or  else  they  will  destroy  holy  Church, 
and  make  each  man  to  live  as  him  liketh,  and  nothing 
may  more  destroy  Christendom."*  He  allows,  in- 
deed, that  "  the  fiend  moveth  some  men  to  say,  that 
Christian  men  should  not  be  servants  nor  vassals  to 
heathen  lords,  since  they  are  false  to  God, — nor  to 
Christian  lords,  because  they  are  brethren  by  nature, 
and  bought  by  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  made 
them  free."  But  he  adds,  that  "  the  apostles  have 
written  against  this  heresy  in  God's  law."  Once 
more, — "  The  feigned  reason  of  Anti-Christ's  clerks, 
is  this, — if  subjects  may  lawfully  withdraw  tithes  and 
offerings  from  curates,  who  live  in  open  lechery,  or 
in  other  great  sins,  and  do  not  their  office,  then  ser- 
vants and  tenants  may  lawfully  withdraw  their  ser- 
vice and  rents  from  their  lords,  who  live  openly  an 
accursed  life."  But  he  replies,  that  "  men  are  charged 
of  God,  by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  to  be  thus  subject 
to  wicked  lords;  and  therefore  Christ  paid  tribute,  for 
himself  and  his  apostles,  to  the  heathen  emperors."! 
His  "  Short  Rule  of  Life,"  speaks  similar  language  : 
"  If  thou  art  a  labourer,  live  in  meekness,  and  wil- 
lingly do  thy  labour,  that  thy  lord  or  thy  master,  it' 
he  be  a  heathen  man,  by  thy  meekness,  willing  and 
true  service,  may  not  have  to  grudge  against  thee, 
nor  slander  thy  God,  nor  thy  Christian  profession, 
And  serve  not  Christian  lords  with  grudgings;  not 

*  De  Obedientia  Prelatorum,  MS.  apud  Vauehan,  vol.  ii.  p.  237,  note  9. 
t  Of  servants  and  lords,  MS.  cited  by  Vaughan,  voL  ii.  p.  338,  239. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  319 

only  in  their  presence,  but  truly  and  willingly,  and  in 
absence  :  not  only  for  worldly  dread,  or  worldly  re- 
ward, but  for  dread  of  God  and  conscience,  and  for 
reward  of  heaven."*  They  who  can  peruse  such 
passages  as  these,  and  yet  contend  that  Wiclif  either 
seriously  meditated  or  desired  the  general  overthrow 
of  property  and  government,  must  be  prepared  to 
maintain  that  he  was,  not  only  a  wild  enthusiast,  but 
a  most  execrable  hypocrite. 

With  regard  to  unworthy  churchmen,  it  must  be 
•confessed,  his  language  is  frequently  much  more 
unsparing  and  unqualified.  He  has  been  charged 
with  heresy,  as  affirming  that  one  who  is  living  in 
mortal  sin  is  neither  bishop  nor  prelate  ;  and  the  tenor 
of  his  writings  does,  undoubtedly,  show,  that  it  would 
have  pleased  him  well,  if  human  laws  were  rigorously 
to  enforce  that  forfeiture  of  office,  which  he  conceived 
profligate  ecclesiastics  to  have  already  incurred  in 
the  just  judgment  of  the  Almighty.  He  has  further 
been  arraigned  for  maintaining  that,  temporal  lords 
may,  at  their  discretion,  seize  the  possessions  and 
estates  of  unfaithful  churchmen.  Now  this  is  a  posi- 

*  WicliPs  writings,  by  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  p.  151. 

That  dominion  is  founded  on  grace,  is  a  notion  which,  probably,  lurks 
to  this  day  in  some  of  the  dark  corners  of  fanaticism.  It  is,  indeed,  one 
vital  element  of  Antinomianism,  "that  thick-skinned  monster  of  the 
ooze  and  the  mire;"  as  appears  from  the  following  account,  given  by 
Wesley,  of  his  conversation  with  one  of  the  most  oracular  persons  of  that 
persuasion : — 

Do  you  believe  you  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  law  of  God? 

I  have  not.    I  am  not  under  the  law.    I  live  by  faith. 

Have  you,  as  living  by  faith,  a  right  to  every  thing  in  the  world  ? 

I  have.    All  is  mine,  since  Christ  is  mine. 

May  you,  then,  take  any  thing  you  will,  any  where  ?  Suppose,  out  of  a 
flhop,  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  the  owner  ? 

I  may,  if  I  want  it ;  for  it  is  mine :  only  I  would  not  give  offence. 

Have  you,  also,  a  right  to  all  the  women  in  the  world? 

Yes,  if  they  consent. 

And  is  not  that  a  sin? 

Yes,  to  him  that  thinks  it  sin ;  but  not  to  those  whose  hearts  are  free. — 
Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  319.  And  this  they  call  being  per- 
fect in  Christ,  not  in  themselves !  One  would  gladly  see  such  perfection 
under  a  scourge  like  that  of  Wiclif;  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  con- 
cerning his  patronage  of  it. 


320  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

w«  _  .  tion  which  has  a  more  dangerous  sound 
ions0 df  the  Sow-  to  modern  ears,  than  it  had  to  the  ears 
cr  of  the  state  of  the  generation  to  which  it  was  ad- 
£oI*rtyCh'  *  dressed.  When  we  hear  of  temporal 
lords,  we  are  apt  to  think  of  noblemen,  or 
land-holders,  in  their  private  capacity ;  and  to  suppose, 
that  the  intention  of  Wiclif  was,  to  place  the  property 
of  the  Church  at  the  mercy  and  discretion  of  every 
such  individual  proprietor.  Whereas,  in  fact,  the  title 
of  temporal  lords,  was,  in  those  days,  equivalent  to 
that  of  temporal  governors,  or  authorities :  and  un- 
derstood in  this  sense,  there  is,  undoubtedly,  very 
sufficient  ground  for  the  imputation.  That  the  en- 
dowments of  thje  Church  were  at  the  disposal  of  the 
secular  government,  and  that  gross  breaches  of  clerical 
duty  ought  to  be  punished  with  loss  or  confiscation, 
he  most  indisputably  did  maintain.  He  held,  in  short, 
the  entire  supremacy  of  the  State  over  all  orders  and 
degrees  of  men,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil.  In 
this  respect  his  principles  were  at  mortal  variance 
with  the  established  doctrine  of  the  Papal  Church ; 
according  to  which,  the  possessions  of  the  clergy  were, 
under  all  imaginable  circumstances,  absolutely  sacred 
and  inviolable.*  The  evil  consequences  of  this  doc- 
trine had  become  so  intolerable  in  the  days  of  Wiclif, 
that  he  frequently  cast  away  all  moderation  in  his 

'  la  early  times,  the  language  of  Genesis  i.  16.  had  been  modestly 
spiritualized,  in  its  application  to  this  subject.  The  greater  light  was 
considered  as  typical  of  the  State,  the  lesser,  of  the  Church.  Six  hun- 
dred years  afterwards,  it  was  discovered  that  this  interpretation  ought  to 
toe  reversed ;  that,  as  there  were  two  luminaries  in  the  heavenly  firma- 
ment, the  sun  and  the  moon,  even  so  were  there  two  in  the  social  firma- 
ment, the  pontifical  power  and  the  regal.  It  followed,  of  course,  that,  for 
the  temporal  authorities  to  touch  the  possessions  of  the  Church,  of  which 
the  Pontiff  was  the  head,  would  be  little  better  than  an  inversion  of  the 
order  of  nature  acd  of  providence.  See  Laud's  Conference  with  Fisher, 
p.  203,  204 ;  where  also  may  be  found  a  very  curious  specimen  of  Pon- 
tifical arithmetic.  The  earth  was  supposed  to  be  seven  times  greater 
than  the  moon ;  the  sun  eight  times  greater  than  the  earth  :  therefore  the 
power  of  the  Pope  is  forty-seven  times  greater  than  the  power  of  the  em. 
peror.  (It  ought,  surely  to  be  fifty-six  times  greater.)  What  would  have 
been  the  triumph  of  the  Papacy,  if  philosophy  had  then  discovered  the 
.actual  proportion  of  these  luminaries  • 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  321 

-protest  against  it.  The  mischiefs  it  occasioned  ex- 
torted from  him  a  loud  and  almost  incessant  appeal 
to  the  wisdom  of  ^the  ruling  powers ;  whose  province 
he  contended  it  was,  to  see  that  there  should  be  some 
connexion  between  the  discharge  of  duty,  and  the 
enjoyment  of  enormous  emoluments.  And  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  urgency  of  his  denunciations 
was  greatly  increased  by  the  persuasion  which  he 
frequently  expresses,  that  the  spirit  of  Widif  congi. 
Christianity  was  violated  by  the  endow-  ders  church  en- 
ments  of  the  clergy;*'  and  that  "venom  ^Stent'with 
was  poured  into  Church"  on  the  very  the  spirit  of 
day  which  first  invested  her  ministers,  Christianity. 
as  such,  with  the  rights  of  property.  He  was  with- 
held by  no  scruples  in  denouncing  the  abuse  of  reve- 
nues, held  by  a  title  which  he  conceived  to  be  doubt- 
ful, if  not  positively  vicious ;  and  the  vehement 
language  in  which  he  clamoured  for  a  reformation  of 
it,  must,  beyond  all  question,  have  sounded,  in  the 
ears  of  many,  as  a  welcome  signal  for  spoliation. 

Among  the  hardiest  of  WicliPs  doctrines,  relative 
te  clerical  emoluments,  may  be  reckoned  that  which 
he  held  respecting  tithes.  He,  every  Tithes 
where,  speaks  of  them  merely  as  alms  ;  sented  by  him 
an  expression  which  seems  to  imply,  w  alms 
that  the  clergy  were  to  be  left  to  the  mercy,  the  ca- 
price, or  the  conscience  of  their  parishioners.  Some 
consideration  has  already  been  bestowed  upon  this  opi- 
nion of  the  Reformer ;  and  it  has  been  intimated  that 
his  view  of  this  matter  was,  mainly,  suggested  by  the 
fact,  that  all  church  property,  of  every  description, 
originated  in  voluntary  bounty,  and  might,  therefore, 
without  impropriety,  be  regarded  as  eleemosynary. 

*  That  such  was  his  conviction,  appears  constantly  in  his  writings  ; 
and  nowhere  more  evidently,  than  in  the  continuation  of  the  passage 
last  quoted  from  the  Trialogus,  lib.  iv. ;  in  which  he  complains  that "  leges 
istae  mundanse,  et  executio  furiosa  illarum,  sunt,  tarn  culpabiliter,  inter 

Cleria  s  introductae Nam  habere  tiyiliter,  cum  necessitate 

ad  sol  xitudinem  circa  temporalia,  et  leges  hominum  observaridas,  debet 
amnino  clericis interdici." 


322  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

And  this  presumption  is  fortified  by  his  assertion, 
that  it  is  the  province  of  kings  and  others,  to  rectify, 
or  to  regulate,  the  alms  of  their  progenitors.*  After 
all,  however,  it  would  be  idle  to  disguise,  that  his 
language,  on  this  subject,  is  generally  so  unqualified, 
as  still  to  leave  it  doubtful,  whether  he  did  not  con- 
sider every  congregation, — nay,  every  individual  of 
the  congregation, — as  at  liberty  to  withhold  all  pay- 
ments from  the  minister,  whenever  they  might  be 
pleased  to  imagine  that  his  life  was  such  as  rendered 
him  unworthy  of  their  liberality.  Most  assuredly 
it  was  his  doctrine,  that  the  indignant  layman  was 
infinitely  less  culpable  in  refusing  tithes  or  offerings, 
than  the  unfaithful  clergyman  m  disregarding  his 
sacred  obligations.  The  truth  is,  that  his  thoughts 
were  constantly  attracted  towards  the  model  of  apos- 
tolic poverty.  He  himself  went  often  barefoot,  clad 
in  a  gown  of  frieze ;  and  his  poor  itinerant  priests 
usually  did  the  same.  It  can,  therefore,  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  he  would  most  gladly  have  seen  the 
Ecclesiastical  Order  reduced  to  a  much  closer  con- 
formity with  the  primitive  example,  and  made  more 
dependent,  for  their  support,  on  the  zeal  and  painful- 
ness  of  their  own  ministrations.  And,  as  the  clergy 
of  his  time  were  compelled  to  a  life  of  celibacy,  com- 
paratively moderate  funds  would  be  sufficient  for 
their  subsistence.  It  would  be  useless  to  plunge  into 
a  long  discussion  as  to  the  wisdom  or  the  folly  of 
these  notions,  in  a  work,  the  chief  object  of  which  is 
to  ascertain  the  actual  sentiments  of  the  man.  It  is, 
however,  quite  indispensable,  that  he  should  be  vin- 
dicated from  the  imputation  fixed  upon  him  by  the 
misconception  of  certain  of  his  apologists.  Misled 
by  his  use  of  the  word  aZms,  they  imagined  that  he 
would  have  condemned  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
to  beg  their  bread. f  Now,  a  great  part  of  his  life 

*  Interest  regum  et  aliorum  rectificare  eleemosynas  progenitorum 
tuorum.    De  Verit.  Script,  p.  466.  James's  Apol.c.  ix.  obj.  5. 
t  James's  Apol.  c.  ix.  obj.  2  of  the  apologista.    I  have  thought  it  quite 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  323 

was  passed  in  one  uncompromising  struggle  against 
religious  mendicancy ;  and  this  circumstance  alone 
might  surely  have  satisfied  his  friends,  at  least,  that, 
even  if  he  wished  to  consign  the  clergy  to  the  spon- 
taneous bounty  of  their  people,  he  would  never  have 
thought  of  driving  them  to  solicit  their  maintenance 
from  door  to  door. 


Such  was  this  great  pioneer  of  the  Value  of  wic- 
Reformation.  That  he  was  apt  to  ply  1S£8  araste07icet^ 
the  axe  with  indiscriminate  violence,  it  fhepaiReforma^ 
would  be  scarcely  reasonable  to  deny ;  tion. 
with  such  violence,  indeed,  that  he,  occasionally,  seems 
to  work  like  one,  who  was  rather  making  a  regular 
clearance  for  the  foundation  of  new  edifices,  than 
ridding  the  earth  of  the  rubbish  which  encumbered 
and  deformed  the  old.  All  this  vehemence  of  action, 
however,  is  precisely  .such  as  must,  sometimes,  be 
expected  from  natures  like  his,  with  their  excess  of 
athletic  vigour,  and  their  fervid  impatience  of  wrong. 
Capacious  and  overruling  spirits  are  scarcely  ever 
sent  into  this  world,  but  "  they  have  something  in 
them  dangerous" — something  which  it  may  be  our 
wisdom  to  fear,  provided  our  apprehensions  degene- 
rate not  into  blind  and  abject  consternation.  There 
is  terror  in  the  voice  of  the  tempest,  and  there  is  often 
destruction  in  its  course;  but  its  breath  may  sweep 
away  the  pestilence,  and  lash  the  elements  out  of 
their  corrupt  stagnation.  The  Lord  himself,  it  is 
true,  is  not  always  in  the  fire,  the  whirlwind,  or  the 
earthquake ;  and  yet  these  wild  and  fearful  agencies 
may,  from  time  to  time,  be  needful,  to  prepare  the 

unnecessary  to  load  the  pages  of  a  compendious  work  like  this  with 
interminable  citations  from  Wiclif 's  writings,  in  support  of  the  above 
representations  of  his  principles.  My  statements  are  the  result  of  a 
careful  examination  of  the  materials  before  me.  Any  person  desirous 
of  ample  details  may  find  them  in  Dr.  James's  Apology,  and  in  the 
works  of  Mr.  Lewis  and  Mr.  Vaughan. 


324  LIFE   OF   W1CLIF. 

hearts  of  men  for  the  accents  of  the  still  small  voice.- 
To  be  appalled,  therefore,  at  the  working  of  those 
mighty  energies  by  which  the  destinies  of  this  world 
are  often  moulded,  may,  peradventure,  be  to  manifest 
something  like  a  distrust  of  God's  wisdom  and  pro* 
vidence.  Of  the  instruments  employed  by  him  for 
the  gradual  destruction  of  a  corrupt  system,  Wiclif 
may  surely  be  reckoned  among  the  most  formidable, 
both  for  weight  and  keenness  :  and  it  can  scarcely  be 
a  subject  of  wonder,  though  it  may  be  of  deep  regret, 
that  while  this  weapon  was  busy  in  the  ranks  01 
error,  its  sway  should  have  frequently  been  perilous 
to  the  closely  neighbouring  truth. 
Notions  of  the  ^n  estimating  his  rank  among  the 
Reformation,  as  great  intellects  which  have  influenced 
wrhaVbe?n  the  forlunes  of  mankind,  we  shall  hard- 
affected  by  Wic-  lyr,  perhaps,  be  justified  in  assigning 
him  a  place  with  those  who  have  been 
most  distinguished  for  philosophic  depth,  or  steadi^ 
ness  of  judgment.  The  foregoing  survey  of  his 
labour?  and  opinions  must  show,  that  he  was  too 
violently  agitated  by  the  evil  which,  in  his  time,  was 
done  and  suffered  under  the  sun,  to  weigh  or  mea- 
sure, with  the  necessary  firmness  of  hand,  the  expe- 
dients needful  for  its  correction.  Admirable  as  he 
was,  he  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  better  fitted 
for  the  business  of  demolition  than  of  building  up. 
As  the  fearless  assailant  of  abuse,  nothing  could  well 
be  more  noble  than  his  attitude  and  bearing.  But, 
had  he  succeeded  in  shaking  the  established  system 
to  pieces,  one  can  scarcely  think,  without  some  awful 
misgivings,  of  the  fabric  which,  under  his  hand, 
might  have  risen  out  of  the  ruins.  If  the  reformation 
of  our  Church  had  been  conducted  by  Wiclif,  his 
work,  in  all  probability,  would  nearly  have  antici- 
pated the  labours  of  Calvin ;  and  the  Protestantism 
of  England  might  have  pretty  closely  resembled  the 
Protestantism  of  Geneva.  Episcopal  goverment 
might  then  have  been  discarded — ecclesiastical  en- 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  325 

dowments  and  foundations  might  have  been,  for  the 
most  part,  sacrificed — the  clergy  consigned  to  a  de- 
grading dependence  on  their  flocks — the  worship  of 
God,  if  not  wholly  stripped  of  its  ritual  solemnity, 
yet  deprived  of  the  aids  of  instrumental  harmony — 
and,  lastly,  the  fatalism  which  lurked  in  the  scholastic 
writings  of  the  Reformer,  might  then,  possibly,  have 
raised  up  its  head,  and  boldly  demanded  a  place  in 
the  Confession  of  the  National  Church !  Had  Wic- 
lif  flourished  in  the  sixteenth  century,  it  can  hardly 
be  imagined  that  he  would  have  been  found  under 
the  banners  of  Cranmer  and  of  Ridley.  Their  cau- 
tion, their  patience,  their  moderation,  would  scarcely 
have  been  intelligible  to  him;  and  rather  than  con- 
form to  it,  he  might,  perhaps,  have  been  ready,  if 
needful,  to  perish,  in  the  gainsaying  of  such  men  as 
Knox  or  Cartwright.  At  all  events,  it  must  plainly 
be  confessed,  that  there  is  a  marvellous  resemblance 
between  the  Reformer,  with  his  poor  itinerant  priests, 
and  at  least  the  better  part  of  the  Puritans,  who 
troubled  our  Israel  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  and  her 
successors.  The  likeness  is  sufficiently  striking,  al- 
most to  mark  him  out  as  their  prototype  and  progeni- 
tor :  and  therefore  it  is,  that  every  faithful  son  of  the 
Church  of  England  must  rejoice  with  trembling,  that 
the  work  of  her  final  deliverance  was  not  consigned 
to  him.  It  must  be  regarded  as  providential,  that  he 
was  raised  up  precisely  at  the  time  when  his  peculiar 
qualities  could  be  most  serviceable.  A  mighty  en- 
gine was  required,  whose  momentum  might  shake 
and  loosen  the  cyclopean  masonry  of  the  Papal  fabric, 
and  thus  prepare  for  the  labours  of  wiser  and  sedater 
men.  For  this  service  Wiclif  was  incomparably 
adapted :  and  the  faithfulness  and  courage  with 
which  he  performed  it  must  demand  the  warmest 
gratitude  of  Protestants  to  the  latest  generations. 

Before  we  retire  from  our  con  templa- The  belief  preva- 
tion  of  Wiclif,  it  is  but  equitable  to  re-  Ssa^n'™ 
mind  the  reader,  that,  in  one  particular,  loosed 
28 


326  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

the  times  in  which  he  lived  were  singularly  adapt- 
ed to  engender  a  fierce  spirit  of  opposition  to  exist- 
ing establishments.  In  those  days,  there  wandered 
about  Christendom  a  persuasion,  that  the  world 
had  seen  an  end  of  the  Apocalyptic  period  of  a  thou- 
sand years,  during  which  Satan  was  to  be  bound,  and 
that  he  was  then  actually  loosed  from  that  confine- 
ment, and  was  in  the  full  exercise  of  his  remaining 
privilege  of  mischief.*  To  this  opinion  there  are 
repeated  allusions  in  the  writings  of  Wiclif.  He 
seems  to  speak  of  it  as  a  thing  beyond  all  controver- 
sy; and  to  consider  the  Christian  community  as, 
once  more,  exposed  to  the  desperate  malice  of  its  in- 
visible persecutor  and  adversary.  Now  it  will  easily 
be  understood  that  a  notion  like  this  would  be  very 
babi  •  lively  to  create  the  wildest  disturbance 
fluenceupcnihis  in  any  brain  which  was  firmly  possessed 
views  and  opin-  by  it.  When  once  a  man  of  an  impetu- 
ous and  fervid  temperament,  is  fully 
persuaded  that  the  spirit  of  Anti-Christ,  and  the 
powers  of  darkness,  are  actually  let  loose  upon  the 
world,  he  will  be  apt  to  contemplate  the  dominant 
institutions  with  certain  feelings  of  suspicion  and 
alarm.  All  the  corruptions  which  might  deform  the 
Church,  and  all  the  oppressions  which  might  burden 
society,  would  readily  be  ascribed  by  him  to  some 
preternatural  and  infernal  instigation.  Arbitrary 
kings,  tyrannical  and  profligate  nobles,  selfish  and 
worldly  ecclesiastics — all  would  be  regarded  as  im- 
mediate agents  of  the  Evil  Potentate — all  would 
appear  to  be  revelling,  as  it  were,  in  that  carnival  of 
wickedness  and  delusion,  which  was  to  precede  the 
final  consummation  of  all  things. 

Something  of  this  sort  of  half-fanatical  excitement 
occasionally  betrays  itself  in  the  writings  and  the  la- 

*  See  the  beginning  of  the  Fifth  Book  of  Fox,  from  which  it  appears, 
that  some  reckoned  the  thousand  years  from  the  birth  of  Chriei ;  others, 
as  he  conceives,  more  correctly,  from  the  cessation  of  the  Church's  suf- 
ferings in  the  days  of  Constantme.  According  to  either  supposition,  the 
period  had  expired  previously  to  the  birth  of  wiclif. 


LIFE    OF    WICLIF.  327 

bours  of  the  Reformer.  It  may  possibly  be  this  which 
helped  to  reconcile  him  to  those  hazardous  specula- 
tions, which  were  thought  to  menace  the  rights  of  pro- 
perty, and  to  hold  up  all  wicked  men  to  public  hatred, 
not  merely  as  unworthy  members  of  society,  but  as 
little  better  than  robbers  and  usurpers.  It  is  this  too, 
we  may  reasonably  presume,  which  often  prompted 
him  to  describe  the  whole  hierarchy  of  that  day  as 
clerks  of  Anti-Christ,  and  servants  of  the  Fiend  :  and 
to  represent  the  Mendicant  Orders  as  the  "  tail  of  the 
dragon  which  drew  a  third  part  of  the  stars  of  heaven, 
and  cast  them  on  the  earth."  And  though  he  is 
always  for  sparing  the  persons  of  clerical  delinquents, 
he  frequently  speaks  like  one  who  is  prepared  for  a 
sweeping  destruction  of  their  whole  apparatus  of 
iniquity.  The  extreme  danger  of  such  feelings  and 
opinions  may  now,  of  course,  be  easily  discerned : 
but  even  they  who  most  cordially  disapprove  them, 
must,  at  least,  be  prepared  to  allow,  that  they  assisted 
to  swell  the  torrent  which  was  destined  to  cleanse 
away  the  Augean  accumulation  of  ages. 


328  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

CHAPTER  X. 
WICLIF'S   OPINIONS. 

Wiclif 's  Poor  priests— Wiclif's  tract,  «  Why  Poor  Priests  have  no 
Benefices."  viz.  1.  Their  dread  of  simony— 2.  Their  fear  of  mis- 
spending the  goods  of  poor  men — 3.  That  Priests  are  obliged  to 
preach,  whether  beneficed  or  not — John  Aston — John  Purney — 


Wiclif's  followers—  The  fanatic  John  Bdlli,  not  a  disciple  of  Wic- 
lif—The  Insurrection  of  the  Peasantry  falsely  ascribed  to"Wiclif 
and  his  followers — Attributed  by  the  Commons  to  the  oppression  of 
the  Peasantry — Encouragement  afforded  to  Wiclif  by  the  great — 
Edward  III.— -Johanna,  Queen  Dowager—John  of  Gaunt — Anne. 
Queen  of  Richard  it.— Richard  II. — Various  Noblemen  ana 
Knights— Lord  Cobham. 

Wiclif's    Poor  IT  has  already  been  intimated,  that  the 
Priests.  doctrines  and  principles  of  Wiclif  were 

disseminated  almost  throughout  the  realm  by  the  ex- 
ertions of  certain  travelling  preachers,  whom  he  de- 
nominates "  Poor  Priests ;"  and  whose  activity  and 
usefulness  is  occasionally  celebrated  by  him  in  the 
course  of  his  later  writings.  A  brief  account  of  this 
class  of  persons  may,  therefore  properly  find  a  place 
in  this  work.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  are 
the  individuals  alluded  to  in  the  preamble  to  that  un- 
constitutional ordinance  which  was  obtained  by  arch 
bishop  Courtney  in  1382;  in  which  we  have  seen 
them  described  as  persons  affecting  peculiar  sanctity 
and  simplicity  of  manners,  and  making  the  fairs  and 
markets  through  the  kingdom,  as  well  as  the  churches 
and  church-yards,  the  scene  of  their  irregular  minis- 
trations. Most  irregular  they  unquestionably  were; 
for  they  were  performed  in  open  disregard  of  eccle- 
siastical authority.  None  of  these  zealous  men  ever 
thought  it  necessary  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  a  license 
from  his  ordinary;  and,  with  all  of  them,  itinerancy 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  329 

was  the  very  life  and  soul  of  their  vocation.  By 
their  itinerant  labours  it  will  be  recollected,  the  Men- 
dicant Orders  had,  for  a  time,  achieved  wonders  in 
reviving  the  torpid  faith  of  Europe,  or,  at  least,  in 
rekindling  her  fidelity  to  the  visible  head  of  the 
Church  upon  earth.  It  might,  therefore,  very  natu- 
rally occur  to  a  reformer,  that  the  instrument  which 
accomplished  so  much  for  the  cause  of  superstition, 
might  very  profitably  be  employed  in  the  service  of 
reformation.  Accordingly,  towards  the  latter  part  of 
his  life,  the  kingdom  was  traversed,  nearly  from  one 
end  of  it  to  the  other,  by  a  multitude  of  preachers^ 
under  the  sanction  and  encouragement  of  Wiclif. 
They  imitated  the  Friars  in  their  vagrant  mode  of 
life,  in  their  incessant  activity,  and  in  their  professed 
renunciation  of  all  worldly  pomp  and  superfluity; 
and,  though  they  did  not  solicit  contributions  from 
house  to  house,  they,  undoubtedly,  relied  for  their 
support  on  the  voluntary  bounty  of  their  hearers. 

A  full  exposition  of  the  habits  and  the 
principles  of  these  effective  auxiliaries  «whys  Poor 
is  given  us  by  Wiclif  himself  in  his  trea-  Priests  have  no 
tise,  "  Why  Poor  Priests  have  no  bene-  benefices-" 
fices"  and,  consequently,  why  they  have  no  fixed  or 
stationary  duties.  In  this  tract,  three  principal  rea- 
sons are  assigned  for  their  adopting  this  mode  of  ad- 
vancing the  cause  of  scriptural  truth.  Of  i.  Their  dread 
these  reasons,  the  first  is,  their  dread  of  Pf  simony. 
simony.  No  man,  it  is  alleged,  could,  in  those  days, 
obtain  a  benefice,  without  making  certain  payments, 
or  submitting  to  certain  conditions,  which,  as  they 
imagined,  gave  a  most  unholy  and  mercenary  char- 
acter to  the  appointment.  The  prelate  had  his  de- 
mand for  first-fruits ;  and  his  officers  had  their  demand 
for  fees  and  gratuities ;  and  to  acquiesce  in  such  ex- 
tortions, as  a  condition  of  being  allowed  to  exercise 
their  ministry,  was  conceived  to  be,  in  spirit,  grossly 
simoniacaL  The  exactions  of  the  lay  patron,  it 
seems,  would  often  be  of  a  still  more  degrading  na- 


330  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

ture :  for  the  nominee,  on  accepting  his  benefice, 
would  be  expected  to  violate  his  sacred  character  by 
descending  to  the  performance  of  some  worldly  office, 
for  the  gratification  or  the  profit  of  his  benefactor. 
To  pay  for  their  preferment  by  such  a  desecration  of 
themselves,  they  regarded  as  simony  of  the  very 
deepest  die.  All  who  were  unmolested  by  these 
scruples,  whatever  mi^ht  be  the  profligacy  of  their 
lives,  found  but  little  difficulty  in  obtaining  benefices 
involving  the  care  of  many  thousand  souls;  while 
they  who  manifested  nothing  but  a  desire  to  live 
righteously  and  soberly,  and  to  teach  truly  the  law  of 
God,  had  little  to  expect  but  slander  and  persecution. 
They  were  stigmatized  as  hypocrites,  as  teachers  of 
novelties,  or  to  comprehend  all  enormities  in  a  single 
word,  as  heretics.  Against  them,  therefore,  the  door 
of  promotion  was  hopelessly  closed  up.  The  laity, 
indeed,  as  Wiclif  further  informs  us,  would  occasion- 
ally abstain  from  the  exaction  of  pecuniary  payments, 
in  the  exercise  of  their  patronage;  but  then  they 
hoped  to  disguise  the  simoniacal  character  of  the 
transaction,  by  accepting  nothing  but  "  a  kerchief 
for  the  lady,  or  a  palfry,  or  a  tun  of  wine;"  and  even, 
if  the  lord  himself  were  desirous  of  presenting  a  man 
purely  for  his  worth,  the  lady  would  frequently  inter- 
fere, and  contrive  that  "  a  dancer  should  be  presented, 
or  a  tripper  on  tapits,  or  a  hunter,  or  a  hawker,  or  a 
wild  player  of  summer  gambols."  All  these  prac- 
tices are  loudly  condemned  by  Wiclif,  as  treasonable 
to  the  majesty  and  holiness  of  God ;  and  as  involving 
in  the  most  odious  guilt  of  simony  the  patron  who 
presents,  the  prelate  who  institutes,  the  curate  who 
accepts  the  benefice,  and,  finally  the  confessor  who 
fails  to  reprobate  such  proceedings,  whenever  they 
fall  within  his  knowledge.  The  poor  priests,  there- 
fore, finding  the  path  to  preferment  so  fearfully  beset 
by  sin,  felt  themselves  constrained  by  conscience,  to 
the  exercise  of  an  irregular  and  unlicensed  ministry.* 
*  Vaughan,  vol.  iii.  p.  164—166. 


LIFE    OF   WICLIF.  331 

Another  of  their  scruples  arose  from  2  Their  fear  of 
their  extreme  apprehension  of  "  mis-  "mis-spending 
spending  the  goods  of  poor  men."  Every  Jjj£r|2jf?,  of 
portion  of  clerical  emolument  that  might 
remain,  after  supplying  the  most  moderate  exigen- 
cies of  nature,  was  regarded  by  them  as  the  rightful 
patrimony  of  the  indigent;  whereas  the  usages  of 
those  days,  as  they  affirmed,  compelled  the  clergy  to 
waste  this  sacred  residue  on  the  rich,  the  worthless, 
and  the  idle.  The  rapacity  of  patrons  and  prelates, 
and  ecclesiastical  functionaries,  together  with  the 
custom  of  prodigal  entertainment  and  luxurious 
living,  swallowed  up  the  resources  of  charity :  and, 
if  any  one  should  affect  more  simple  and  frugal 
habits,  he  was  sure  to  be  harassed  by  every  form  of 
calumny  and  molestation.  Besides,  the  parochial 
clergy  were  frequently  converted  by  the  hierarchy 
into  instruments  for  pillaging  the  poor.  They  were 
perpetually  wearied  and  degraded  by  the  letters  of 
their  ordinaries,  commanding  them  to  wring  money 
from  the  hard  hands  of  their  necessitous  congrega- 
tions, by  the  terrors  of  ecclesiastical  censure  and 
anathema,  and  thus  to  become  the  ministers  of  ava- 
rice and  extortion.  "  So  many  cursed  deceits,"  ex- 
claims Wielif,  "hath  Anti-Christ  brought  up  by  his 
worldly  clerks,  to  make  curates  mis-spend  poor  men's 
goods,  and  not  truly  to  do  their  office ;  or  else  to  for- 
sake all,  and  to  leave  the  clerks  of  Anti-Christ  as 
lords  of  this  world,  to  rob  the  people  by  feigned  cen- 
sures, and  to  teach  the  lore  of  the  fiend,  both  by  open 
preaching,  and  the  example  of  an  accursed  life." 
Abuses  such  as  these,  in  the  judgment  of  Wielif  and 
his  disciples,  were  sufficient,  of  themselves,  to  con- 
vert non-conformity  almost  into  a  positive  obligation. 

They  had  yet  another  motive  for  de-  3.  That  priests 
clining  preferment:    but   it  was  of  a  p^ch^^he? 
much    more    questionable     description  ther   beneficed 
than  the  former.     They  contended  that  or  not- 
the  want  of  a  benefice  afforded  no  dispensation  from 


LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

the  duty  of  preaching.  Their  commission,  as  they 
contended,  authorized  and  required  them  to  be  instant, 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  wherever  they  might 
help  their  brethren  heavenward,  whether  by  their 
teaching,  their  prayers,  or  their  example.  Their 
charge  they  maintained  to  be  as  general  as  the  mis- 
sion of  Christ  and  his  apostles  !  They  were  free  to 
fly  from  one  city  to  another,  "  when  persecuted  by  the 
clerks  of  Anti-Christ,"  conformably  to  the  injunctions 
of  Christ  himself.  Without  the  challenge  of  any  hu- 
man authority  or  jurisdiction,  they  might  dwell  wher- 
ever their  ministry  would  be  most  profitable,  and  for 
such  time  as  might  be  convenient,  "  after  the  moving 
of  the  Holy  Ghost ;"  and  the  example  of  Christ  and 
his  apostles  was  better  observed  by  living  on  the 
voluntary  alms  of  their  followers,  than  in  receiving 
tithes  or  offerings,  conformably  to  the  customs  or- 
dained by  sinful  men.  "  For  these  dreads,"  he  says, 
"  and  for  a  thousand  more,  and  for  to  be  more  like 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  more  to  profit  their  own 
souls,  and  other  men's,  some  poor  priests  think,  with 
God,  to  travel  about  where  they  shall  most  profit,  and 
by  the  evidence  that  God  giveth  them,  while  they 
^  have  time,  and  a  little  bodily  strength  and  youth." 
V\Ve  have  here  the  principles  of  a  complete  system  of 
fcitinerancy,  subject  to  no  other  control  whatever,  ex- 
Jcept  the  supposed  direction  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
entirely  independent  of  all  human  superintendence 
or  authority.  On  the  manifold  evils  that  might  result 
from  such  a  system,  if  divested  of  all  qualification, 
it  must  be  quite  needless  to  enlarge.  Such  qualifica- 
tion, however,  "Wiclif  conceived  himself  to  supply 
in  the  declaration,  "  that  neither  he,  nor  his  poor 
priests,  presumed  to  condemn  curates  who  do  well 
their  office,  and  dwell  where  they  shall  most  profit, 
and  teach,  truly  and  stably,  the  law  of  God,  against 
false  prophets,  and  the  accursed  deceptions  of  the 
fiend."  It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  in  some  res 
pects,  he  might  be  styled  the  Wesley  of  his  day.  He 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  333 

did  not,  it  is  true,  itinerate  himself;  neither  does  it 
appear  that  he  encouraged  laymen  to  take  upon  them- 
selves the  office  of  public  religious  instruction.  But 
he  gave  his  express  and  deliberate  sanction  to  the 
practice  of  itinerancy  and  field  preaching,  though 
without  pretending  to  supersede  the  regular  and  faith- 
ful ministrations  of  the  parochial  clergy.  In  one 
particular,  indeed,  he  had  clearly  the  advantage  of 
Wesley.  The  modern  Reformer  lived  in  times 
when  the  law  and  practice  of  the  established  Church 
gave  no  countenance  to  this  species  of  missionary 
proceeding.  .Whereas  Wiclif  had  constantly  before 
his  eyes  the  phenomenon  of  itinerant  mendicancy; 
and  might,  therefore,  be  excused  for  wishing  to  im- 
prove, and  to  convert  to  salutary  purposes,  a  usage, 
which  had  the  avowed  sanction  of  Christ's  vicar  upon 
earth. 

The  persons  who  took  upon  themselves  the  exer- 
cise of  an  unlicensed  ministry,  in  defiance  of  all 
ecclesiastical  discipline,  ought,  unquestionably,  to 
have  counted  the  cost  of  the  irregular  warfare  upon 
which  they  had  voluntarily  entered.  It  is  to  be 
charitably  presumed  that  this  computation  had  been 
faithfully  made  by  the  generality  of  those  persons,  to 
whom  the  reformer  lent  the  sanction  of  his  name. 
It  must,  however,  be  frankly  confessed  that,  if  we 
were  to  estimate  their  firmness  by  the  example  of 
several  among  them,  respecting  whom  some  distinct 
account  has  been  preserved,  we  might  be  strongly 
tempted  to  doubt  whether  they  went  forth  to  their 
work  in  the  genuine  spirit  of  martyrdom.  Of  these 
reforming  missionaries,  John  Aston  was 
one  of  the  most  energetic  and  untiring.  John  Aston- 
He  seems  to  have  been  the  very  model  of  a  poor 
itinerant  priest.  He  is  described  as  one  who  had 
nearly  shaken  off  all  the  incumbrances  of  the  flesh. 
He  travelled  on  foot,  with  his  staff  in  his  hand.  He 
was  in  continual  circuit  among  all  the  parishes  in 
every  part  of  the  kingdom.  He  scarcely  ever  suffered 


334  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

the  need  of  refreshment  to  interfere  with  the  prose- 
cution of  his  labours.  He  is,  accordingly,  compared 
by  the  chronicler,  Knighton,  to  a  bee  perpetually  on 
the  wing;  or  to  a  hound,  in  constant  readiness  to 
start  up  from  his  repose,  and  to  bark  at  the  slightest 
sound.  It  further  appears  that  he  was  not  content 
with  publishing  the  conclusions  of  his  master,  but 
added  a  multitude  of  novelties  of  his  own  coinage: 
and,  like  most  of  his  brethren,  he  affirmed  that  the  I 
poor  priests  were  the  only  true  preachers,  and  that  all  / 
the  rest  of  the  clergy  were  preachers  of  falsehood/ILJ 
This  man  was  among  those  followers  of  Wiclif,  who 
were  summoned  before  Archbishop  Courtney,  at  the 
synod  of  the  Preaching  Friars ;  and  his  demeanour 
on  that  occasion  was  remarkable  for  its  boldness  and 
pertinacity.  He  was  repeatedly  urged  by  the  primate 
to  address  the  court  in  Latin,  lest  his  statements 
should  convey  error,  or  excitement,  to  the  minds  of 
the  ignorant  by-standers.  With  this  injunction  he 
positively  refused  to  comply.  On  the  contrary,  he 
addressed  the  auditors  in  English,  with  so  much 
vehemence,  that  it  was  thought  expedient  to  hasten 
the  proceedings,  and  without  further  delay,  to  pro- 
nounce against  him  the  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion.! From  a  sturdy  evangelist  like  this,  one  might, 
perhaps,  be  prepared  to  expect  a  stern  defiance  of 
ecclesiastical  censure.  Nevertheless,  it  appears  that 
the  terrors  of  persecution  were,  after  all,  too  much 
for  his  courage.  It  is  affirmed,  indeed,  by  William 
Thorpe,  in  the  course  of  his  examination  before 
Archbishop  Arundel,  in  1407,  that  this  John  Aston 
taught  the  doctrine  of  Wiclif,  "  and  used  it  himself, 
right  perfectly  to  his  life's  end."t  But  it  is  difficult 
to  reconcile  this  assertion  with  one  undoubted  fact ; 
namely,  that  by  the  letters  of  the  archbishop,  dated 
November  27,  1382,  he  was  restored  to  the  school 
exercises,  in  consideration  of  his  having  renounced 

•  Knighton,  p.  2568,  2569.  t  Wilk.  Cone.  p.  164, 

J  Wordsw.  Eccl.  Biog.  vol.  i.  p.  132. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  335 

and  anathematized  his  heretical  opinions.*  The  con- 
clusion, therefore,  seems  inevitable,  that  he  once  re- 
treated most  unworthily  from  the  position  which  he 
maintained  at  first  with  so  much  intrepidity.  Of  his 
recovery  we  have  no  other  intimation,  except  that 
which  may  possibly  be  implied  in  the  above  assertion 
of  Thorpe's. 

Another  of  Wiclif  s  distinguished  coad-  John  Purnev. 
jutors  was  John  Purney,  or  Purvey.  This 
man,  as  we  are  informed  by  Knighton,  was  of  a  grave 
aspect,  affecting  an  appearance  of  sanctity  beyond  his 
fellows.  His  dress  was  that  of  an  ordinary  person. 
He  was  wholly  regardless  of  his  ease,  and  unwearied 
in  journeying  through  the  land,  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
lightening and  converting  the  people.  He  was,  in- 
deed, the  personal  friend  and  companion  of  Wiclif ; 
and  having,  thus,  drunk  deeply  of  his  doctrine,  was 
passionately  devoted  to  the  work  of  a  reformer.  In 
his  sermons,  he  is  said  to  have  assailed  with  the 
deadliest  detraction  all  preachers  but  those  of  his  own 
sect;  and,  more  especially  those  of  the  Mendicant 
Order.  His  vehemence  and  boldness  brought  upon 
him,  at  length,  the  weight  of  the  ecclesiastical  arm. 
He  was  seized,  and  cruelly  tortured,  by  order  of  Arch- 
bishop Arundel.  His  faith  was  unequal  to  the  trial; 
and  he  pronounced  his  recantation  at  Paul's  Cross  in 
1396. f  The  rest  of  his  story  is  deplorable  enough. 
The  archbishop  rewarded  his  repentance  with  a  bene- 
fice ;  and  the  following  is  the  language  in  which  that 
prelate  afterwards  spoke  of  him  to  William  Thorpe 4 
"  Thou,  and  such  other  losels  of  thy  sect,  would  shave 
your  beards  full  neere,  for  to  have  a  benefice.  For, 
by  Jesu,  I  know  none  more  covetous  shrews  then  ye 
are,  when  that  ye  have  a  benefice.  For  lo !  I  gave 
to  John  Purvey  a  benefice  but  a  mile  out  of  this  castle 

•  Wilk.  Cone.  p.  169.    Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  262—266. 
t  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  260. 

J  See  "  the  Examination  of  William  Thorpe,  penned  with  his  own 
hand."  Wordsw.  Eccl.  Biogr.  vol.  i.  p.  130. 


336  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

(Saltwood) :  and  I  heard  more  complaints  about  his 
covetousness  for  tithes,  and  other  misdoings,  then  I 
did  of  all  the  men  that  were  advanced  within  my 
diocese."  All  this,  Thorpe  was  unable  to  deny.  He 
could  only  answer,  that  it  was  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
benefice  that  Purvey  was  then  on  the  archbishop's 
side,  but,  because  he  had  faithlessly  abandoned  his 
former  doctrines  and  principles.  And  when  Thorpe 
was  urged  to  follow  Purvey's  example,  and  that  of 
Hereford,*  he  said  that  their  example  would  have 
been  good  had  they  persevered  in  a  life  of  simplicity 
and  poverty :  but,  he  adds,  "  since  they  had  slander- 
ously and  shamefully  done  the  contrary,  (consenting 
to  receive,  and  to  have  and  hold  temporal  benefices, 
living  more  worldly  and  more  fleshly  than  they  did 
before,  conforming  themselves  to  the  manner  ot  this 
world,)  I  forsake  them  herein,  and  in  all  their  fore- 
said  slanderous  doing."  Whether  Purvey  lived  to 
repent  of  his  retraction,  is  uncertain.  It  appears, 
however,  not  altogether  unlikely  ;  for  he  was  a  second 
time  imprisoned  by  Archbishop  Chichely  in  1421,  and 
probably  died  in  confinement.! 
wniiam  swin-  William  Swinderby  was  another  of 
derby-  these  preachers.  He  was  called  by  the 

people,  William  the  Hermit.  He  is  represented  by 
Knighton  as  a  man  of  inconstant  temper,  and  unset- 
tled habits.  He  first  signalized  himself  at  Leicester, 
by  a  somewhat  rash  and  perilous  assault  upon  the 
pride  and  vanity  of  women.  His  ungracious  free- 
dom of  speech  excited  the  wrath  of  all  the  females  in 
the  place,  both  good  and  bad,  to  such  a  degree,  that 
they  were  ready  to  stone  him  out  of  the  town.  He 
next  attacked  the  merchants,  and  nearly  drove  some 
of  them  to  despair,  by  declaring  that  no  rich  man 
could  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He  then,  for  a 
time,  became  a  recluse,  and  was  enabled  to  indulge 

*  See  "  the  Examination  of  William  Thorpe,  penned  with  his  own 
hand."  Wordsw.  Eccl.  Biosr.  vol.  i.  p.  203.  204. 
t  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  207—270. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  337 

his  passion  for  solitude,  by  the  bounty  of  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster,  who  allowed  him  a  house  within  his  park, 
and  provided  him  with  a  maintenance.  Growing' 
weary  of  total  seclusion,  he  was  taken  into  the  abbey 
for  a  time :  but  his  fondness  for  itinerancy  soon  re- 
turned, and  forced  him  out,  once  more,  to  a  conflict 
with  the  corruptions  of  the  world,  in  company  with 
one  W.  Smith,  a  deformed  blacksmith,  who  was 
driven  by  a  disappointment  in  love  to  habits  of  asce- 
tic moroseness.  His  denunciations  were  now  levelled 
against  the  enormities  of  the  Church,  a  theme  which 
was  sure  to  find  him  an  abundance  of  willing  hearers. 
When  Bokyngham,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  attempted  to 
restrain  him,  he  made  a  pulpit  of  two  mill-stones,  in 
the  high-street  of  that  city,  from  which  he  proclaimed 
that,  in  spite  of  the  Pope's  teeth,  he  could  and  would 
preach  in  the  Ring's  highway,  so  long  as  he  had  the  good 
will  of  the  people.  He  was  preserved  from  the  full 
severity  of  punishment,  which  otherwise  would  have 
awaited  him,  by  the  intercession  of  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster; but  was,  nevertheless,  compelled  to  abjure 
his  conclusions.  Being  deeply  depressed  by  the  dis- 
grace of  his  retraction,  he  fled  to  Coventry,  resumed 
his  former  habits,  and  was  recovering  his  popularity; 
when  he  was  expelled  by  the  diocesan  with  shame 
and  contempt.  This  is  the  substance  of  Knighton's 
account.  One  fact  is  added  to  it  by  Walsingham, 
which,  if  credited,  may  help  to  explain  Swinderby's 
escape  from  worse  consequences  ;  namely,  that  when 
the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  had  made  preparations  to  cor- 
rect him,  and  to  take  from  him  his  license  to  preach, 
the  multitude  raged  so  violently  as  to  frighten  the 
bishop,  and  deter  him  from  further  proceedings  against 
the  heretic.* 

It  must  be  fairly  acknowledged,  that  the  picture 
here  presented  to  us,  of  a  poor  travelling  priest,  is 
very  far  from  honourable  to  that  class  of  agitators, 

•  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  271—276. 

29 


338  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

It  exhibits  a  combination  of  rashness  and  inconstancy 
which  might  have  reflected  discredit  on  the  very  best 
of  causes.  It  is  true  that  the  above  narrative, — like 
every  other  recital  of  the  monkish  annalists,  when 
the  Lollards  are  their  theme, — must  be  received  with 
very  considerable  caution.  At  the  same  time,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  account  of  William  Swin- 
derby,  preserved  to  us  by  Fox,  is  scarcely  more  credit- 
able to  his  fortitude,  than  that  of  the  Popish  chroni- 
cler. In  perusing  the  details,  indeed,  in  Kni^hton 
and  in  Fox,  we  seem  to  be  reading  the  histories  of 
two  different  men.  In  the  marly rologist, — whose 
authority  is  the  Episcopal  Register  of  Hereford, — we 
find  abundant  complaints  against  him,  for  "  pervert- 
ing the  whole  Ecclesiastical  State,  and  stirring  up 
schism  between  the  clergy  and  the  people  ;"  but  not 
one  syllable  of  his  fanatical  proceedings  at  Leicester; 
nothing  of  his  urging  the  damsels  and  matrons  to 
fury,  by  his  preachment  against  feminine  frivolities ; 
nothing  of  his  driving  merchants  to  despair,  by  de- 
claring the  rich  incapable  of  salvation ;  nothing  of  his 
restless  temper,  or  of  the  frequent  and  capricious 
change  of  his  habits  and  pursuits.  The  substance  of 
what  is  told  us  by  Fox  is  simply  this.  In  1389, 
William  Swinderby,  priest,  was  presented  before  the 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  upon  certain  articles,  in  which — 
as  he  afterwards  complained — his  real  opinions  were 
maliciously  distorted.  His  accusers  were  Mendi- 
cants, and  so  hotly  did  they  long  for  his  destruction, 
that  they  brought  dry  wood  with  them  into  the  town 
to  burn  him :  and  here  Fox,  undoubtedly,  agrees 
with  Kni^hton,  in  stating,  that  his  fears  compelled 
him  to  abjuration.  He  then  removed  to  the  diocese 
of  Hereford.  But  the  sleepless  eye  of  discipline  was 
upon  him.  His  old  enemies,  the  friars,  were  still 
about  his  path:  and  the  consequence  was,  that,  in 
1391,  he  was  summoned  to  answer  before  the  Bishop 
of  Hereford,  upon  the  charge  of  holding  heretical 
opinions,  and  of  preaching  without  the  license  of  the 


LIFE    OF  WICLIF.  339 

bishop,  and  in  defiance  of  his  injunction.  On  his 
appearance,  he  was  allowed  further  time  to  prepare 
his  answer,  which  he  accordingly  did,  in  the  form  of 
a  written  protest,  and  exposition  of  his  doctrines: 
but  it  seems  that  he  had  the  prudence  to  decline  any 
further  appearance  in  person  !  Sentence  was,  here- 
upon, pronounced  in  due  form  against  him,  as  a 
heretic,  schismatic,  and  false  informer  of  the  people; 
and  all  persons  were  solemnly  admonished,  under 
pain  of  the  law,  that  they  should  neither  receive,  de- 
fend, or  support  him,  until  he  should  be  reconciled  to 
the  church.  Against  this  sentence  he  appealed  to  the 
King  in  council ;  and  presented,  at  the  same  time, 
what  Fox  calls  "  a  fruitful  letter  to  the  lords  and 
burgesses  of  parliament."  This  exhortation,  or 
homily,  is  little  more  than  a  string  of  scriptural  sen- 
tences and  passages,  in  condemnation  of  the  manifold 
obliquities  and  corruptions  of  the  age.  It  is  some- 
what more  lengthy  than  would,  probably,  suit  the 
patience  of  our  modern  Protestant  legislature ;  and 
it  concludes  with  a  profession  that,  if  any  thing  found 
therein  could  be  proved  contrary  to  the  law  of  God, 
he  would  "  revoke  his  conceit,  and  be  amended  by 
God's  law,  with  which  he  was  ever  ready  to  hold, 
openly  and  privily,  with  God's  grace,  and  nothing 
to  hold,  teach,  or  maintain,  that  is  contrary  thereto. " 
Of  the  fate  of  "  this  worthy  priest,  and  true  servant 
of  Christ,"  as  he  is  styled  by  the  martyrologist,  no 
account  has  been  preserved  :  though  Fox  conjectures, 
upon  very  slight  and  insufficient  grounds,  that  he 
was  burnt  in  Smithfield,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next 
reign.* 

It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  these  very  equivocal  spe- 
cimens of  non-conformity,  to  the  case  wmiam  ^^ 
of  William  Thorpe,  whose  character  and 
life,  as  a  "  poor  priest,"  reflected  signal  credit  on 
the  cause  to  which  he  devoted  himself.     Thorpe  was 

*  Fox,  vol.  i.  p.  530—542. 


340  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

destined  by  his  parents  for  the  sacerdotal  office :  and 
no  expense,  within  their  means,  was  spared  in  his 
preparation  for  it.  Being  smitten,  however,  with 
certain  scruples,  he  hesitated  to  take  upon  himself 
the  sacred  responsibility,  until  he  had  consulted 
several  wise  and  virtuous  priests,  and  among  them 
Hereford  and  Repingdon,  who  had  not  then  fallen 
away  from  their  fidelity :  and  finding  that  "  their 
honest  and  charitable  works  passed  the  fame  which 
he  heard  of  them,"  he  resolved  to  join  them  in  their 
pious  labours.  And,  not  only  was  he  "  right  home- 
ly"* with  these  men,  "and  communed  with  them 
long  time  and  oft,"  but  he,  also,  sought  the  truth  at 
the  lips  of  their  great  master  himself,  John  Wiclif, 
who,  he  says,  was  "  holden  of  full  many  men  the 
greatest  clerk  that  they  knew  then  living,  and,  withal, 
a  passing  ruly^  man,  and  innocent  in  his  living :  for 
which  reason,  great  men  communed  oft  with  him, 
and  they  so  loved  his  learning,  that  they  wrote  it, 
and  busily  enforced  them  to  rule  themselves  there- 
after." tfeing  thus  captivated  with  the  teaching  and 
the  character  of  Wiclif,  (as  "  most  agreeable  unto 
the  living  and  teaching  of  Christ  and  his  apostles, 
and  most  openly  showing  and  declaring  how  the 
Church  of  Christ  had  been,  and  yet  should  be,  ruled 
and  governed,")  he  devoted  himself,  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  to  the  work  of  spreading  the  precious 
knowledge  he  had  attained  through  various  parts  of 
England,  but  more  especially  in  the  northern  coun- 
ties. At  last  the  hand  of  ecclesiastical  discipline 
seized  upon  him.  He  was  imprisoned  in  1407  at 
Saltwood  Castle,  in  Kent;  and,  on  his  examination 
before  Archbishop  Arundel,  at  that  place,  maintained 
his  cause  with  modest,  but  inflexible,  constancy. 
His  own  account  of  this  examination  is  still  preserved, 
and  is  among  the  most  interesting  documents  in  the 
earlier  history  of  our  Reformation  4  The  end  of  this 

*  Familiar.  t  Sedate,  orderly. 

}  It  is  printed  from  Fox,  in  Wordsw.  Eccl.  Biogr.  vol.  i.  p.  111—212. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  341 

worthy  confessor  is  not  known;    though  it  seems 
most  probable  that  he  closed  his  days  in  prison. 

The  part  of  the  examination  with  which  we  are 
more  immediately  concerned,  is  that  which  relates 
to  the  duty  of  preaching.  When  the  archbishop  re- 
proached him  with  holding  that  he  might  lawfully 
preach  without  authority  of  any  bishop,  his  reply 
was,  that  by  the  authority  of  God's  law,  and  also  of 
saints  and  doctors,  he  was  taught  that  it  was  the 
priest's  office  to  preach  busily,  freely,  and  truly,  the 
word  of  God ;  that  no  man  should  take  the  priest- 
hood upon  him  without  a  hearty  good-will  to  preach, 
or  without  competent  learning  for  the  work ;  and 
that  he  who  became  a  priest,  was  under  the  most 
awful  obligation  to  make  known  the  law  of  God  to 
his  people,  when,  where,  and  to  whom  he  best  might. 
The  archbishop  then  pressed  him  with  the  question 
of  St.  Paul,  how  should  priests  preach  except  they  be 
sent  ?  and  added,  that  "  he  never  sent  Thorpe  to 
preach ;  for  his  venomous  doctrine  was  so  well 
known  throughout  England,  that  no  bishop  would 
grant  him  a  license."  On  this,  Thorpe  replied,  that 
he  well  knew  that  no  license  would  be  granted  to  him, 
or  any  of  his  brethren,  without  such  terms  and  con- 
ditions as  those  which  were  imposed  upon  the  friars, 
and  such  other  preachers ;  and  to  these  limitations 
they  could  not  in  conscience  submit.  "  And,  there- 
fore," he  added,  "  though  we  have  not  your  letter,  sir, 
nor  letters  of  any  other  bishops,  written  with  ink 
upon  parchment,  we  dare  not  therefore  leave  the  office 
of  preaching ;  to  which  preaching,  all  priests,  after 
their  cunning  and  power,  are  bound  by  divers  testi- 
monies of  God's  law,  and  great  doctors,  without  any 

mention-making  of  bishops'  letters For  that 

God  commandeth  us  to  do  the  office  of  priesthood,  he 
will  be  our  sufficient  letters  and  witness,  if  we  by  example 
of  his  holy  living  and  teaching,  specially  occupy  ug 
faithfully,  to  do  our  office  justly :  yea,  the  people  to 
whom  we  preach,  be  they  faithful  or  unfaithful,  shall 
29* 


342  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

be  our  letters,  that  is,  our  witness-bearers;  for  the 
truth,  where  it  is  sown,  may  not  be  unwitnessed." 

It  will  immediately  be  perceived  that  notions  like 
these  were  well  nigh  subversive  of  all  ecclesiastical 
discipline  whatever.  It  can,  therefore,  hardly  be  a 
subject  of  wonder,  or  even  of  blame,  that  the  prelates 
should  be  extremely  anxious  for  their  suppression. 
The  rack  and  the  stake,  indeed,  were  most  execrable 
instruments  for  the  maintenance  of  conformity  ;  but 
these,  though  of  recent  introduction  into  this  country, 
had  long  been  familiar  to  the  spiritual  judicatures  of 
the  continent ;  and  it  could  scarcely  be  expected  that 
the  English  hierarchy,  in  that  barbarous  age,  should 
be  more  scrupulous  in  the  use  of  them,  than  their 
brother  inquisitors  abroad,  when  once  the  legislature 
had  been  prevailed  upon  to  sanction  such  inhuman 
extremities.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  never  be 
forgotten,  that,  if  some  intrepid  spirits  had  not  been 
found,  to  burst  through  the  "  privilege  and  custom" 
of  ages,  the  evils  of  corrupt  and  superstitious  doc- 
trine might  have  been  eternal :  and  we  might  not, 
at  this  day,  have  been  living  under  a  system,  which 
combines  the  blessings  of  a  reformed  religious  estab- 
lishment, with  those  of  a  liberal  and  enlightened 
toleration. 

It  may  be  convenient  to  introduce  in  this  place 
the  mention  of  several  other  persons,  who,  though 
they  cannot  properly  be  numbered  among  the  "  poor 
priests"  of  Wiclif,  were  yet,  at  one  time,  most  strenu- 
ous auxiliaries  in  the  cause  of  reformation,  and  like 
some  others  named  above,  unhappily  abandoned  it  in 
Nicolas  Here-  time  of  persecution.  Among  these,  one 
ford.  Of  the  most  distinguished  was  Nicolas  , 

Hereford,  above  alluded  to  by  Thorpe.  He  was  a 
a  doctor  of  divinity,  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford, 
eminent  as  a  scholar  and  a  divine,  and  for  a  while,  a 
zealous  supporter  of  the  new  doctrines.  He  was, 
accordingly,  summoned  to  answer  at  the  Preaching 
Friars,  before  Archbishop  Courtney,  was  excommu- 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  343 

nicated  for  contumacy  in  not  appearing,  but  after- 
wards restored,  in  consideration  of  his  subsequent 
obedience  to  the  summons,  and  his  abjuration  of  the 
erroneous  opinions  imputed  to  him.*  It  is  affirmed 
by  Knighton,  that  he,  subsequently,  went  to  Rome, 
with  a  view  to  defend  these  same  conclusions,  and 
was,  eventually,  committed  to  perpetual  imprison- 
ment by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Others 
maintain,  that  being  wearied  out  with  persecution, 
he  finally  submitted,  and  ended  his  days  in  the  habit 
of  a  Carthusian,  at  the  monastery  of  St.  Anne,  Coven- 
try. Our  own  records  give  a  very  different  account 
of  his  fate.  By  them  it  appears  that,  in  1394,  the 
King  conferred  upon  him  the  Chancellorship  of  the 
Church  at  Hereford;  which  perfectly  agrees  with 
what  is  said  of  him  in  Thorpe's  examination  ;  where 
he  is  spoken  of,  together  with  Purvey  and  Philip 
Repingdon,  as  having  renounced  all  heretical  opi- 
nions, and  accepted  preferment  in  the  Church. f 

Philip  Repingdon,  also  mentioned  Philip  Reping- 
above,  was  another  of  those  who  were  don- 
convened  at  the  Preaching  Friars.  He  was  one  of 
the  Canons,  and  afterwards  Abbot,  of  Leicester ;  and 
had  vehemently  maintained  all  the  opinions  of  Wic- 
lif  before  the  University  of  Oxford.  But  his  fidelity 
to  the  work  of  reformation  faded  away  before  the 
fear  of  suffering,  or  the  hope  of  advancement.  He 
shamefully  dishonoured  the  name  of  his  master,  not 
only  by  abjuring  his  cause,  but  by  becoming  one  of 
its  bitterest  persecutors.  In  1405  his  desertion  was 
rewarded  by  the  bishopric  of  Lincoln,  conferred  on 
him  by  Papal  provision  ;  and  in  1420,  his  infamy  was 
crowned  with  the  dignity  of  a  cardinal  !J 

The  apostasy  of  these  two  men,  together  with  that 
of  Purvey,  had  the  disgraceful  eminence  of  furnish- 
ing Archbishop  Arundel,  and  his  clerks  and  chaplains, 

•  Wilk.  Cone.  p.  169. 

•    t  For  a  full  account  of  Hereford,  see  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  256—262, 
t  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  266,  267. 


344  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

with  a  powerful  engine  of  attack  upon  the  faithful- 
ness of  William  Thorpe.  It  has  already  been  stated, 
that  under  their  tuition,  as  well  as  that  of  Wiclif 
himself,  Thorpe  had  been  prepared  for  the  office  of  a 
travelling  preacher  :  but,  when  he  was  examined  be- 
fore the  Primate,  they  had  fallen  from  their  stead- 
fastness, and  had  received  the  wages  of  unrighteous' 
ness.  "As  touching  Philip  Rampmgton,"*  said  the 
archbishop,  to  that  worthy  and  constant  man,  "  that 
was  first,  canon,  and  after,  abbot  of  Leicester,  who 
is  now  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  I  tell  thee,  the  day  is  come, 
for  which  he  fasted  at  even.  For  neither  he  holdeth 
now,  nor  will  hold,  the  learning  that  he  taught  when 
he  was  canon  of  Leicester.  For  no  bishop  of  this 
land  pursueth  now  more  sharply  those  that  hold  the 
way,  than  he  doth."  To  which  Thorpe  replied, 
"  Sir,  full  many  men  and  women  wonder  upon  him, 
and  hold  him  for  a  cursed  enemy  to  the  truth." 
Again, — "  For  the  pity  of  Christ," — said  several  of 
the  archbishop's  clergy,  in  their  expostulations  with 
Thorpe, — "  for  the  pity  of  Christ,  bethink  thee,  how 
great  clerks, — the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  (Repingdon,) 
Hereford,  and  Purvey, — were,  and  are ;  which  have 
forsaken  and  revoked  all  the  learning  and  opinions 
that  those,  and  such  others,  hold.  Wherefore,  since 
each  of  them  is  wiser  than  thou  art,  we  counsel  thee 
for  the  best ;  that,  by  the  example  of  these  clerks, 
thou  follow  them,  submitting  thee  as  they  do."  And 
one  of  them  added,  that  "  he  heard  Nicolas  Hereford 
say,  that,  since  he  forsook  and  revoked  the  learning 
and  opinions  of  the  Lollards,  he  had  mikle  great  fa- 
vour, and  more  delight  to  hold  against  them,  than 
ever  he  had  to  hold  with  them."  The  whole  reply 
of  Thorpe  to  these  solicitations  is  signally  honoura- 
ble to  his  firmness  and  integrity :  but  it  shows  that 
the  fainting  of  these  standard-bearers  was  not  without 

*  This  was  a  ludicrous  distortion  of  Repingdon's  name,  occasioned  bv 
the  rampant  violence  with  which  he  was  known  to  persecute  the  Lol- 
lards. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  345 

its  effect  upon  the  courage  of  the  host !  "  Certainly," 
says  Thorpe,  "many  men  and  women  do  mark  and 
abhor  the  foulness  and  cowardice  of  these  aforesaid 
untrue  men;  how  they  are  overcome,  and  stopped 
with  benefices,  and  withdrawn  from  the  truth  of 
God's  word,  forsaking  utterly  to  suffer  therefore  bodi- 
ly persecution.  For  by  this  unfaithful  doing,  and 
apostasy  of  them,  especially,  that  are  great  lettered 
men,  and  have  acknowledged  openly  the  truth,  and 
have,  now,  either  for  pleasure  or  displeasure  of  ty- 
rants, taken  hire  and  temporal  wages  to  forsake  the 
truth,  and  to  hold  against  it,  slandering  and  pursuing 
them  that  covet  to  follow  Christ  in  the  way  of  righte- 
ousness,— many  men  and  women  are  therefore  moved. 
But  many  more,  through  the  grace  of  God,  shall  be 
moved  hereby  to  learn  the  truth  of  God,  to  do  there- 
after, and  to  stand  boldly  thereby."* 

It  is  somewhat  melancholy  to  reckon,  among  the 
deserters  from  the  doctrine  of  Wiclif,  a  man  so  illus- 
trious for  learning  and  munificence  as  Richard  Fiem- 
Richard  Fleming,  the  founder  of  Lin-  in?- 
coin  College,  Oxford.  After  he  had  proceeded  to  his 
master's  degree  he  became  notorious,  at  the  Univer- 
sity, for  his  zealous  patronage  of  .the  reformed  opin- 
ions, and  actually  appeared  as  their  defender  in  the 
public  schools.  One  would  gladly  be  persuaded  that 
the  subsequent  counter-revolution  in  his  principles, 
was  the  result  of  honest  conviction,  and  that  his  in- 
tegrity did  not  sink  under  the  weight  of  his  Church 
preferments.  The  change  of  his  conduct,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  cause  of  it,  was  as  complete  as 
the  most  vehement  sincerity  could  have  produced. 
His  enmity  to  the  heretical  notions  was  quite  as  de- 
cided as  his  support  of  them  had  ever  been.  His 
noble  foundation  is,  itself,  a  monument  at  least  of 
the  strength  of  his  hostility;  for  it  was  expressly 
designed  by  him  for  the  education  of  adversaries  to 

•  Thorpe's  Examination  in  Wordaw.  Eccles.  Biogr.  ubi  supra. 


346  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

the  doctrines  of  the  Reformer.  In  1396  lie  was  one 
of  the  twelve  censors,  appointed  by  the  University, 
for  the  examination  of  Wiclif 's  writings.  In  1420 
he  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Lincoln ;  and  would, 
afterwards,  have  been  translated  by  the  Pope  to  that 
of  York,  if  the  King  had  not  refused  his  consent.  It 
has  already  been  stated,  that  it  was  this  Richard 
Fleming,  who,  as  Bishop  of  this  diocese,  was  charged 
with  the  disinterment  of  Wiclif 's  remains,  in  pur- 
suance of  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Constance ;  an 
office  which  he  executed  with  so  much  good  will, 
that  he  caused  the  bones  of  the  heretic  to  be  burned, 
and  the  ashes  to  be  cast  into  the  waters  of  the  Swift. 
He  died  in  January,  1430,  and  was  buried  in  his  own 
cathedral.* 

It  would  be  useless  to  mention  several  other  names, 
comparatively  obscure,  which  brought  similar  dis- 
credit on  the  cause  of  Wiclif.  But  whatever  may 
Wide  disper-  have  been  the  frailty,  or  the  unfaithful- 
siou  of Wicfif's  ness,  of  some  among  his  emissaries,  it 
must  always  be  remembered,  that,  when 
the  bitterest  hour  of  persecution  arrived,  multitudes 
among  his  followers  were  found  faithful  unto  death. 
With  regard  to  his  "  poor  priests,"  at  least,  the  weari- 
ness and  painfulness  of  their  exertions  is  beyond  all 
dispute.  By  their  incessant  labours,  his  principles 
were  so  widely  dispersed,  that,  as  Knighton  affirms, 
"  they  were  multiplied,  like  suckers  from  the  root  of 
a  tree,  and  every  where  filled  the  compass  of  the  king- 
dom ;  insomuch  that  a  man  could  not  meet  two  peo- 
ple on  the  road,  but  one  of  them  was  a  disciple  of 
Wiclif 's."  Of  this  statement  Sir  Thomas  More  com- 
plains, as  a  pernicious  exaggeration ;  and  yet  he  him- 
self is  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  vast  increase  of 
the  heretics,  when  seeking  for  probable  grounds  of 
charge  against  them,  as  fomenters  of  rebellion  against 
Henry  V.f  The  character  ascribed  to  them,  generally, 

*  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  279,  280.  t  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  218,  219. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  347 

by  the  Popish  chronicler,  is,  as  might  be  expected, 
much  more  honourable  to  their  activity,  than  to  their 
wisdom  or  their  piety.  He  speaks  of  them  as  wordy 
and  disputatious;  outtalking  all  who 
ventured  to  contend  with  them;  and  preSnuttion  'of 
exhibiting  a  wonderful  agreement  in  wiciifsfoiiow- 
opinion  among  themselves.  He  even  ers* 
charges  them  with  a  Saracenic  pugnacity,  abhorrent 
from  the  meekness  and  patience  which  become  the 
followers  of  Christ;  declaring  that  "  they  were  rather 
suspected  of  being  disciples  of  Mahomet,  who  forbade 
his  followers  to  argue  for  his  law,  but  ordered  them 
to  defend  it  with  warlike  fortitude,  and  to  fight  for  it." 
The  whole  discipline  of  the  Lollards,  indeed,  accord- 
ing to  this  writer,  was  totally  different  from  that  of 
our  Saviour :  for  He  said,  if  any  one  will  not  hear 
you,  when  you  depart  out  of  that  house,  or  city,  shake 
off  the  dust  of  your  feet  for  a  testimony  against  them. 
Not  so  the  Wiclifites :  their  language  was, — If  any 
one  will  not  hear  you,  or  shall  say  any  thing  against 
you,  take  the  sword  and  strike  him,  or  wound  his  repu- 
tation with  a  backbiting  tongue!"*  It  is  somewhat 
amusing  to  find  this  Romish  ecclesiastic,  ascribing 
to  the  Lollards  the  very  maxims  which  were  noto- 
riously in  the  mouth  of  the  most  zealous  and  igno- 
rant Papists.  Every  one  will  remember  the  advice 
of  St.  Lewis  to  all  good  and  unlearned  Catholics : 
"  Never  argue  with  a  heretic.  If  any  such  should 
presume  to  assail  your  faith,  make  him  no  other  re- 
ply but  to  draw  your  sword  from  its  scabbard,  and 
to  drive  it,  as  far  as  it  will  go,  into  his  belly !"  That 
the  reformists  were  often  violent,  noisy,  and  perti- 
nacious, and  sometimes  abundantly  lacking  in  dis- 
cretion, may  very  easily  be  believed.  It  would  have 
been  surprising,  indeed,  if  their  proceedings  had 
been  uniformly  temperate  and  prudent,  in  a  cause  so 
fitted  to  call  forth  the  most  impetuous  energies  of 

Knighton,  2662,  2663,  2663.    Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  218-220. 


343  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

human  nature.  It  must,  further,  he  conceded,  that 
the  principles  of  their  great  master  himself  were, 
some  of  them,  very  liable  to  abuse,  and  would  be 
often  likely  to  make  wild  work  in  the  brains  of  simple 
and  unlettered  men.  But  when  we  hear  them  gene- 
rally accused  of  maintaining  their  ground  by  means 
of  atrocious  slander,  or  sanguinary  violence,  we  have 
only  to  recollect,  that  the  same  arts  which  have  been 
used  to  make  the  cause  of  Wiclif  odious,  were  after- 
wards prodigally  employed  against  that  of  Martin 
Luther.  The  Wiclifites  had  in  their  possession  more 
powerful  resources  than  those  of  brawling,  or  blood- 
shed. They  had  the  English  Bible  in  their  hands,  or 
in  their  memories.  Here  lay  the  grand  secret  of  their 
strength.  Both  men  and  women,  as  Knighton  him- 
self informs  us,  commenced  teachers  of  the  Gospel  in 
their  mother  tongue.  In  other  words,  they  recited  the 
very  Oracles  of  God  to  those  who  could  not  read,  and 
who  were,  consequently,  unable  to  consult  the  Holy 
Volume  for  themselves.  If  this  weapon  had  not  been 
at  their  command,  they  would,  probably,  have  been 
as  men  that  beat  the  air.  They  might  have  fretted 
out  their  time  upon  the  stage  of  the  world,  "  full  of 
sound  and  fury ;"  but  their  counsel  would  have  come 
to  naught ! 

Another  charge,  made  by  the  same  historian,  is, 
that  "  the  preachers  of  Wiclif's  opinions  were  usually 
guarded  by  their  hearers,  armed  with  sword  and 
target  for  their  defence,  that  no  one  might  attempt 
any  thing  against  them,  or  their  blasphemous  doc- 
trine, or  might  dare,  at  any  time,  to  contradict  it."* 
There  is,  it  must  be  confessed,  something  rather 
Saracenic  and  Mahometan  in  this  picture.  To  our 
conceptions,  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  of  peace, 
surrounded  by  his  armed  satellites,  is  a  strange  and 
revolting  spectacle.  But,  then,  in  order  to  estimate 
this  matter  rightly,  we  must  carry  our  thoughts  back 

*  Knighton,  2661,  2662.    Lewi*,  c.  I.  p.  220. 


LIFE  OF    WICLIF.  349 

into  the  fourteenth  century.  We  must  "entertain 
conjecture  "  of  a  period,  when  society  was  rude  and 
turbulent,  and  when  the  omnipresence  of  the  law  was 
not  felt  as  it  is  now.  The  preacher  of  religious  novel- 
ties would,  at  first,  have  much  opposition  to  encoun- 
ter, from  the  prejudices  of  a  people  immersed  in 
superstition;  especially  when  corrupt  and  interested 
adversaries  were  constantly  at  hand  to  goad  them 
into  fury.  The  doctrine,  might,  on  the  whole,  be 
found  palatable  enough,  when  once  its  qualities  were 
known  ;  but,  in  many  instances,  the  difficulty  would 
be  to  obtain  a  hearing;  more  particularly,  if  the 
preacher,  like  Swinderby,  should  begin  by  a  direct 
and  vehement  onset  upon  the  favourite  vanities  and 
indulgences  of  the  age.  In  such  cases,  it  might 
naturally  be  expected,  that  an  exasperated  populace 
would,  occasionally,  burst  into  furious  outrage;  so 
that,  in  the  absence  of  an  effective  police,  the  person 
of  the  preacher  would  be  left  wholly  unprotected,  if 
he  ventured  on  his  ministrations  without  a  retinue  of 
friends,  provided  with  the  means  of  overawing  the 
multitude.  Even  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  lives 
of  Wesley  and  of  Whitfield  were  sometimes  in  dan- 
ger from  the  passions  of  the  mob.  It  can,  therefore, 
hardly  be  surprising,  that  the  followers  of  Wiclif 
should  have  been  frequently  compelled,  between  300 
and  400  years  earlier,  to  guard  themselves  against 
similar  perils.  That,  when  the  doctrine  began  to 
find  favour  with  the  multitude,  the  martial  array 
might  be  as  effective  against  the  terrors  of  ecclesias- 
tical discipline,  as  it  had  been  against  those  of  popu- 
lar violence,  is,  it  must  be  allowed,  very  far  from 
improbable.  But  here,  again,  it  must  be  kept  in  mind, 
that  the  age  was,  comparatively,  lawless.  Besides, 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  Lollard  congregations, 
were  frequently  attended  by  worshipful  knights  and 
squires,  whose  very  costume  was,  in  those  days,  at 
least  partially  warlike.  So  that  it  would  be  un- 
reasonable to  infer,  from  such  scenes  and  practices, 
30 


350  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

that  Wiclif  was  the  patriarch  of  rebellion,  or  that 
Lollardism  received  its  main  impulse  from  a  spirit 
of  revolutionary  violence  and  disorder. 

These  remarks,  though  perhaps  somewhat  digres- 
sive, are  rendered  necessary  by  the  attempts  which 
have  been  made  to  connect  the  name  and  the  cause 
of  Wiclif,  with  all  the  revolutionary  symptoms  of 
that  period.  It  has  been  asserted,  for  instance,  by 

The  fa  atic  Barillas  an(^  others,  that  the  seditious 
John  Baiie%ot  fanatic  John  Balle,  was  a  disciple  and 
a  disciple  of  emissary  of  Wiclif,  or,  in  other  words, 
one  of  his  poor  priests.  This  assertion, 
however,  is  destitute  of  all  reasonable  evidence.  That 
the  opinions  scattered  by  this  fanatic  had  some  re- 
remblance  to  those  of  Wiclif  and  his  followers,  may 
certainly  be  true  ;  but  then  it  is  also  quite  clear,  that 
the  resemblance  was  precisely  such  as  exists  between 
an  outrageous  caricature  and  a  fair  original.  That 
he  had  any  connexion  with  Wiclif,  has  never  been 
shown.  Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  the  fact, 
that  he  had  fallen  under  the  censures  of  Archbishop 
Langham,  as  a  preacher  of  manifold  and  scandalous 
errors,  in  the  year  1366,*  long  before  the  poor  priests 
of  Wiclif  had  been  heard  of.  And  Walsingham  ex- 
pressly affirms,  that,  for  upwards  of  twenty  years, 
previous  to  the  rebellion  of  the  peasantry,  he  had  been 
busily  plying  the  trade  of  revolutionary  agitation,  f  By 
Knighton  he  is  accordingly  styled,  not  the  follower, 
but  the  forerunner  of  Wiclif,  as  John  the  Baptist  was 

The  insurreo  tne  forerunner  of  Christ.  As  for  the  in- 
tion  of  the  pea-  surrection  of  the  peasantry,  Walsingham 
SUShl'H  tnaw;ly  ascribes  it,  among  various  other  causes, 

ascnueu  10  vv ic-  .  '  1  /•        i  •     •  j • 

lif  and  his  foi-  to  the  prevalence  of  religious  mendican- 
lowers.  cv>  The  professors  of  poverty,  he  com- 

plains, (forgetful  of  the  principles  of  the  Order,  and 
lusting  after  the  wealth  which  they  had  renounced) 
had  shamefully  pandered  to  the  bad  passions  both  of 

•  Wilk.  Cone,  iii,  61 . "'  t  Wale.  p.  292. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  351 

high  and  low ;  and  all  with  a  view  to  the  accumula- 
tion of  riches.  For  this  purpose  "  they  had  called 
good  evil,  and  evil  good,  seducing  the  nobles  by  their 
flatteries,  the  populace  by  their  lies,  and  leading  both 
classes  into  pernicious  errors."  And  this  surmise  is 
powerfully  supported  by  the  confession  of  the  dema- 
gogue Jack  Straw,  immediately  previous  to  his  exe- 
cution. According  to  his  statement,  the  design  of 
the  insurgents  was  to  exterminate  all  possessioners, 
bishops,  monks,  canons,  and  rectors  of  churches :  and 
the  only  ecclesiastics  to  be  spared,  were,  not  the 
emissaries  of  Wiclif,  but  the  begging  friars  !  These 
alone  would  have  been  suffered  to  live,  as  being 
amply  sufficient  for  all  the  purposes  of  religious 
ministration.*  That  the  followers  of  the  Reformer 
were  among  the  instigators  of  this  commotion,  is 
rendered  further  improbable,  by  the  remarkable  cir- 
cumstance, that  his  great  patron,  John  of  Gaunt,  was 
one  chief  object  of  the  fury  of  the  insurgents.  They 
not  only  fired  his  palace,  and  destroyed  his  furniture, 
but  actually  sought  his  life.  It  is  also  perfectly  no- 
torious, that  the  Commons,  (although  they  concurred 
in  advising  the  repeal  of  the  charters  of  general 
manumission,  extorted  from  the  king  by  the  insurgent 
villains)  ascribed  the  insurrection  wholly  to  the  in- 
tolerable burdens  laid  upon  the  kingdom,  by  the  pro- 
digality of  the  court.  "  To  speak  the  real  truth,"  they 
say,  "the  injuries  lately  done  to  the 

"  ,7         ,7  f       Attributed  by 

poorer  commons,  more  than  they  ever  suj-  the  Commons  to 

fered  before,  caused  them  to  rise  and  to  the   oppression 
commit  the  mischief  done  in  their  late  * 
riot :  and  there  is  still  cause  to  fear  greater  evils,  if 
sufficient  remedy  be  not  timely  provided."!    It  is  not, 

*  "  Q,ui  in  paupertate  perseverare  juraverant,  dicunt  bonum  malum,  et 
malum  bonum,  seducentes  principes  adulationibus,  plebem  mendaciis,  et 
utrosque  secum  in  de^ium  pertrahentes." — Wals.  p.  281.  "  Soli  mendi- 
cantes  vixissent  super  terram,  qui  suffecissent  pro  sacris  celebrandis,  et 
conferendis,  universae  terne."—  Wals.  p.  283. 

f  Rot.  Parl.  5  Rich.  ii.  p.  100,  cited  in  Hallamjs  Middle  Ages.  vol.  ii.  p, 
93,94. 


352  LIFE    OF  WICLIF. 

indeed,  to  be  supposed  that  the  language  of  reforma- 
tion, however  reasonable  or  moderate,  would  much 
tend  to  strengthen  the  endurance  of  the  people  under 
these  oppressions.  But  this  is  a  very  insufficient 
reason  for  representing  Wiclif  and  his  travelling 
preachers,  as  conspirators  against  the  peace  and  wel- 
fare of  the  realm. 

Having,  above,  considered  the  various  resources 
derived  by  the  cause  of  reformation,  from  the  energy 
of  Wiclif  himself,  and  from  the  activity  and  zeal  of 
his  followers,  historical  fairness  requires  that  we 
should  survey  the  external  and  accidental  advan- 
tages, which  accrued  to  the  same  cause,  from  the 

BDeoonmneni  j?,flueIJCe  a°d  Peonage  of  the  great, 
afforded  to  wic-  The  foregoing  narrative  has  already 
lifbyihe  great,  shown  that  the  aggressions  of  the  Re- 
former drew  down  no  unfavourable  looks  from  the 
high  places  of  the  land,  so  lon^  as  those  aggressions 
were  confined  to  abuses,  which  brought  the  eccle- 
siastical and  secular  interests  into  conflict  with  each 
other.  The  amount  of  encouragement  and  security 
thus  obtained,  will  be  best  estimated  from  an  enume- 
ration of  the  distinguished  persons,  who  are  repre- 
sented as  propitious  to  the  views  of  the  Reformer. 
At  the  head  of  those  distinguished  persons,  it  is 
usual  to  reckon  that  illustrious  sove- 
m  reign,  Edward  the  Third ;  who,  for  the 
countenance  afforded  by  him  to  so  pestilent  a  cha- 
racter, has  been  consigned,  by  some  historians,  to  the 
severest  displeasure  of  heaven.  Bodily  sickness, 
mental  decline,  and  an  inglorious  old  age,  if  we  may 
credit  those  writers,  were  the  just  retribution  received 
by  him  at  the  hand  of  an  offended  God.  That  this 
sovereign  formed  a  worthy  estimate  of  Wiclif's 
talents  and  accomplishments  there  can  be  no  doubt ; 
for  he  employed  him  in  matters  of  the  deepest  na- 
tional importance,  involving  his  own  royal  preroga- 
tive, and  the  most  vital  interests  of  his  kingdom :  but 
he,  probably,  was  quite  unconscious  that,  in  so  doing, 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  353 

he  had  called  down  the  divine  wrath  upon  his  head. 
With  the  varieties  of  theological  opinion,  the  mo- 
narch did  but  slightly  trouble  himself;  and  in  Wiclif 
he  found,  what  the  exigences  of  his  affairs  required, 
not  a  desperate  heresiarch,  but  an  able  servant  and  an 
enlightened  counsellor.  It  is,  however,  undeniable, 
that  the  confidence  of  his  sovereign  must  have  in- 
vested the  Reformer  with  a  dignity  and  an  authority, 
highly  favourable  to  the  advancement  of  his  principles 
and  opinions. 

It  is  further  indisputable,  that  Johanna,  Johanna, Queen 
the  widow  of  the  Black  Prince,  was  Dowager, 
deeply  interested  for  the  honour  and  the  personal 
safety  of  Wiclif;  for,  it  will  be  recollected,  that  it 
was  her  peremptory  injunction,  delivered  by  her  mes- 
senger, Sir  Lewis  Clifford,  which  arrested  the  hand 
of  ecclesiastical  power,  when  it  was  ready  to  fall  upon 
him,  in  the  synod  at  Lambeth. 

How  Wiclif  was  honoured  and  sup-  j0hn  of  Gaunt, 
ported  by  John  of  Gaunt,  must  have 
fully  appeared  in  the  course  of  our  narrative.  It  has 
been  -supposed  that  the  monkish  historians  have  tes- 
tified their  sense  of  the  duke's  delinquency  in  this 
matter,  by  falsely  representing  him  as  little  better 
than  a  traitorous  conspirator.  I  will  not  attempt  to 
estimate  the  force  of  these  imputations.  "  We  can- 
not hope,"  as  the  historian  of  the  middle  ages  has 
observed,  "  to  disentangle  the  intrigues  of  that  remote 
age,  as  to  which  our  records  are  of  no  service,  and 
the  chroniclers  are  very  slightly  informed."*  It  is 
more  to  our  present  purpose  to  remark,  that  the  mo- 
tives of  the  duke  for  patronising  the  cause  of  reform, 
were,  in  all  probability,  more  of  a  political  than  a 
religious  complexion.  It  is  true,  that  he  vigorously 
resisted  the  attempt  which  was  made  in  1390,  to 
deprive  the  people  of  their  English  translation  of  the 
Scriptures,  declaring,  with  a  mighty  oatlij  that  he 

*  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  210, 

30* 


354  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

would  maintain  their  right  to  read  the  law  of  their 
faith  in  their  own  language,  "  against  those,  whoever 
they  might  be,  who  brought  in  the  bill:"*  and  his 
protestation  was  acutely  seconded  by  the  arguments 
of  other  speakers,  who  contended,  that,  if  the  exist- 
ing amount  of  error  were  to  determine  the  expediency 
of  suppressing  translations,  the  Latin  vulgate  would, 
of  all  others,  deserve  prohibition,  "  seeing  that  the 
decretals  reckoned  no  fewer  than  sixty-six  Latin 
heretics."!  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  also 
seen,  that  when  the  dispute  between  Wiclif  and  the 
Church  became  more  strictly  theological  than  before, 
the  favour  of  the  duke  instantly  began  to  wane. 
He  had  set  his  face  like  a  flint  against  the  more  secu- 
lar tyranny  of  Rome ;  but  had  no  inclination  what- 
ever lo  commit  himself  to  a  conflict  with  her  spi- 
ritual supremacy,  relative  to  mere  matters  of  belief. 
It  cannot,  however,  be  questioned,  that  whatever 
may  have  been  his  motives,  his  protection  was,  on 
the  whole,  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  cause  of  the 
reformers. 

Anne,  the  queen  From  the  character  transmitted  to  us 
or  Ridiani  ii.  of  Anne  of  Bohemia,  the  queen  of 
Richard  II.  it  may  safely  be  concluded,  that  the  pro- 
gress of  Scriptural  truth  was  regarded  by  her  with 
fervid  interest.  This  excellent  and  amiable  lady  was 
the  daughter  of  the  emperor  Charles  IV.  and  sister  to 
Wenceslaus,  kin<*  of  Bohemia ;  and  her  whole  life 
and  habits,  in  this  country,  were  such  as  gave  an 
honourable  and  effective  sanction  to  the  most  import- 
ant of  Wiclif 's  labours.  "The  noble  Queen  of  Eng- 
land," says  he,t  "  the  sister  of  Caesar,  may  hear  the 
Gospel  written  in  three  languages,  Bohemian,  Ger- 
man, and  Latin;  and  to  hereticate  her,  on  this  ac- 
count, would  be  Luciferian  folly  !"  There  appeared, 
indeed,  but  little  disposition  to  hereticate  her,  on  the 
part  of  the  hierarchy.  On  the  contrary,  her  scriptural 

Hallam,  vol.  iii.  p.  96.  t  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  240. 

?  In  hie  Threefold  Bond  of  Love. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  355 

studies  formed  one  leading  topic  of  commendation,  in 
the  sermon  delivered  at  her  funeral,  by  Archbishop 
Arundel.  "  Although  she  was  a  stranger,"  he  said, 
"  yet  she  constantly  studied  the  four  Gospels  in  Eng- 
lish, with  the  expositions  of  the  doctors :  and  in  the 
study  of  these,  and  in  the  perusal  of  godly  books,  she 
was  more  diligent  than  the  prelates  themselves, 
although  their  office  and  calling  required  it."*  This 
may  be  thought  a  somewhat  strange  and  hazardous 
encomium,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Romish  primate  of 
all  England.  But  it  may  easily  be  imagined,  that  in 
his  judgment,  it  was  one  thing  to  sanction  the  use  of 
the  Scriptures  among  persons  of  education  and  rank, 
(especially  when  guarded  by  orthodox  commentaries,) 
and  another,  to  throw  open  the  sacred  oracles  to  rash 
and  self-sufficient  ignorance.  Besides,  the  prelate 
would  probably  have  been  rather  more  parsimonious 
in  his  praiso,  could  he  have  foreseen,  that  certain  of 
her  majesty's  attendants  would,  on  the  death  of  their 
mistress,  carry  back  with  them  the  writings  and  the 
principles  of  Wiclif  to  their  native  country,  Bohemia, 
and  would  thus  assist  to  scatter  the  seeds  of  reforma- 
tion, more  widely  than  ever,  over  the  continent  of 
Europe. 

With  regard  to  King  Richard  himself, 
it  would,  perhaps,  be  idle  to  predicate  of 
him,  either  attachment  or  opposition  to  the  views  of 
Wiclif.  When  he  came  to  the  throne,  he  was  merely 
an  "intoxicated  boy."  As  he  grew  up  to  manhood, 
the  better  elements  of  his  nature  were  lost  and  dis- 
sipated amidst  the  gaities  of  his  prodigal  court,  while 
its  worser  qualities  developed  themselves  into  a  dis- 
astrous maturity.  Like  his  ancestor,  Edward  the 
Second,  he  became  the  slave  of  worthless  favourites ; 
and  if  any  thing  like  energy  remained  in  his  charac- 
ter, it  vented  itself  in  eruptions  of  arrogance  and 
passion ;  as  when  he  declared  to  the  messengers  of 

*  Lewis  c.  r.  p.  242. 


356  LIFE   OF   WICLIP. 

Parliament  that  he  would  not,  at  their  request,  re- 
move the  meanest  scullion  from  his  kitchen.  In  a 
character  like  this,  it  would  be  vain  to  look  for  any 
decided  views  relative  to  thosfc  deep  and  solemn 
questions  which  were  connected  with  the  state  of  the 
national  religion,  All  that  can  be  said  of  him  is,  that 
in  the  early  period  of  his  reign,  he  manifested  no 
positive  aversion  to  the  person  or  the  principles  of 
Wiclif;  and  that  the  persecuting  ordinance  above 
alluded  to,  was  rather  the  work  of  the  hierarchy, 
than  of  the  king  himself.  It  was  not  till  the  year 
1395,  that  the  audacity  of  the  Lollards  awakened 
him  to  a  decisive  manifestation  of  his  own  displea- 
sure at  their  proceedings. 

Among  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  England,  both 
Wiclif  and  his  followers  found  many  zealous  and 
steady  friends.  It  will  be  remembered  that,  when 
he  first  appeared  before  the  prelates  at  St.  Paul's,  he 
was  attended,  not  only  by  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster  but  by  Henry  Percy,  Earl  of 
Derby,  and  Earl  Marshal  of  England.  In 
one  of  his  homilies,  he  declares  that  he  had  great 
comfort  of  certain  knights,  that  they  favoured  the 
Gospel,  and  were  disposed  to  read  it  in  English.* 
Of  these,  several  have  been  mentioned  by  the  chroni- 
clers,! together  with  dukes  and  earls,  who,  "  having 
a  zeal  for  God,  but  not  according  to  knowledge,  sur- 
rounded the  false  preachers  with  a  military  band,  that 
they  might  not  suffer  reproaches  or  losses  by  the 
orthodox,  on  account  of  their  profane  doctrine."  But 
of  all  the  noble  persons  who  rendered  the  principles 
,  of  Wiclif  honourable,  by  their  own  faith 

JLoru   u-obliam.         j     •   .         T       i  /^   11  •    i  i 

and  virtue,  Lord  Cobham,  is  beyond  com- 
parison, the  most  illustrious.  It  is  probable  that  he 
was  a  hearer  of  Wiclif  himself,  in  his  youth.  Most 

*  Lewis,  c.  x.  p.  244. 

^  The  names  mentioned  by  Knighton,  arp  Sir  Thomas  Latimer,  Sir 
Lewis  Clifford,  (the  same  who  brought  the  queen  dowager's  message  to 
{he  prelates  at  Lambeth)  Sir  John  Pecche,  Sir  Richard  Story,  or  Sturry, 
£ir  Reginald  Hilton,  and  Sir  John  Trussel. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  357 

certainly  he  was  a  strenuous  and  consistent  supporter 
of  his  opinions,  which  he  intrepidly  maintained,  not 
only  as  a  private  individual,  but  in  his  place  as  a  peer 
of  Parliament.  When  he  was  finally  brought  to 
answer  before  the  archbishop  and  clergy,  at  the  house 
of  the  Dominican  Friars  in  London,  he  bore  the  fol- 
lowing testimony  to  the  excellence  of  his  master's 
doctrine  :  "  As  for  that  virtuous  man,  Wiclif,  whose 
judgments  ye  so  highly  disdain,  I  shall  say  here,  of 
my  part,  both  before  God  and  man,  that  before  I  knew 
that  despised  doctrine  of  his,  I  never  abstained  from 
sin.  But  since  I  learned  therein  to  fear  my  Lord 
God,  it  hath  otherwise,  I  trust,  been  with  me.  So 
much  grace  could  I  never  find  in  all  your  glorious  in- 
structions ;" — all  which  provoked  the  following  reply 
from  Dr.  Walden,  prior  of  the  Carmelites.  "  It  were 
not  well  with  me,  if  I  had  no  grace  to  amend  till  I 
heard  the  devil  preach  !  St.  Hierome  saith,  that  he 
which  seeketh  such  suspected  masters,  shall  not  find 
the  mid-day  light,  but  the  mid-day  devil."  The  final 
result  of  all  these  proceedings  is  well  known,  and 
needs  not  to  be  recited  here.  This  magnanimous 
and  inflexible  confessor,  abandoned  by  his  sovereign, 
and  hunted  down  by  the  fury  of  his  persecutors,  was, 
at  last,  consigned  to  martyrdom,  and  perished  in  the 
flames,  with  the  praises  of  God  in  his  mouth,  and  the 
spirit  of  his  Saviour  in  his  heart. * 

*  A  full  and  most  interesting  account  of  the  fate  of  this  nobleman  may 
be  found  in  Wordsw.  Eccl.  Biogr.  vol.  i.  p.  217—277 ;  and  a  spirited 
abridgement  of  it,  in  Southey's  Book  of  the  Church,  vol.  i.  p.  358—381. 
I  cannot  forbear  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  Dr.  Lingard's  nar- 
rative of  this  transaction.  It  appears  that  he  is  sufficiently  alive  to  the 
horrors  of  the  ancient  mode  of  execution  for  high  treason ;  for,  in  one 
of  his  notes,  he  relates  distinctly  the  hanging,  embowelling,  and  heading, 
of  Sir  Thomas  Blount,  in  order  that  the  reader  may  form  a  vivid  notion 
of  the  frightful  barbarity  of  that  punishment.  Vol.  iv.  p.  381,  note. 
But,  when  heretics  are  roasted  to  death,  his  sympathies  wonderfully  sub- 
side. In  speaking  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  he  merely  says,  "  that  leader 
escaped ;  and,  though  the  king  offered  the  most  tempting  rewards  for  his 
apprehension,  eluded,  for  several  years,  the  pursuit  and  search  of  his 
enemies."  And  here  the  account  of  this  nobleman  breaks  off!  Not  a 
syllable  do  we  hear  of  his  being  dragged  to  London,  with  both  his  legs 
broken  in  the  conflict  which  preceded  his  seizure,  or  of  his  being  hanged 


358  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

It  appears,  therefore,  quite  incontestably,  that  the 
spirit  which  Wiclif  sent  abroad  had  brought  into  cap- 
tivity,  not  only  the  poor,  the  weak,  and  the  ignorant, 
but  numbers  of  high-born  and  enlightened  men. 
The  excellent  of  the  earth  were  touched  by  the  flame 
of  the  altar ;  and  with  that  sacred  fire  shut  up  in  their 
bones,  they  went  forth  and  did  valiantly,  in  the  cause 
of  truth,  of  meekness,  and  of  righteousness.  That 
dangerous  and  turbulent  elements  mixed  themselves 
up  in  the  commotions  produced  by  better  principles, 
it  would  be  preposterous  to  deny.  But  such,  un- 
happily, are  the  conditions  under  which  our  fallen 
humanity  is  often  doomed  to  receive  the  most  inesti- 
mable blessings  which  it  may  please  a  gracious  Pro- 
vidence to  bestow.  It  becomes  us,  therefore,  to  be 
deeply  thankful  for  the  good  which  has  been  won- 
derfully elicited  from  the  conflict,  and  to  labour,  with 
all  our  faculties,  for  its  preservation. 

in  chains  from  a  gibbet,  and  consumed  to  death  by  a  fire  kindled  below. 
The  sufferings  of  a  traitor  call  for  generous  compassion.  Those  of  a 
heretic  are  not  even  worth  mentioning !  I  say  nothing  of  the  historian's 
representation  of  Oldcastle's  ''arrogant  and  insulting"  conduct  to  his 
judges,  and  of  the  "  mild  arid  dignified"  demeanour  of  Archbishop  Arun- 
del.  This  is  nothing  more  than  was  to  be  expected,  as  a  matter  ol  course. 
Those  who  may  be  curious  for  a  specimen  of  Arundel's  "  mild  and  dig- 
nified demeanour,"  will  do  well  to  consult  his  examination  of  William 
Thorpe;  who  records  many  of  the  "wondrous  arid  blameful"  words 
ppoken  to  him  by  the  primate,  "  menacing  him,  and  all  others  of  the 
came  sect,  to  be  punished  and  destroyed  to  the  uttermost." 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  359 


CHAPTER  XI. 


Proceedings  against  the  Wiclifites—  Petition  to  Parliament  on  the 
part  of  the  Lollards  —  Turbulence  of  the  Lollards  —  King  Richard 
//.  requested  to  return  from  Ireland  to  the  succour  of  the  Church 
— 


Oxfo 

Sautre,  the  first  victim  of  this  law  —  Proceedings  of  Archbishop 
Arundel  —  Continued  violence  of  the  Lollards-^-  Law,  compelling 
all  persons  in  civil  office  to  take  an  oath  against  Lollardism  — 
Inquisitorial  Constitution  of  Archbishop  Chicheley  —  Effect  of 
these  severities  —  Bishop  Pecock  writes  against  the  Lollards  — 
He  defends  the  Bishops  —  "His  Represser"  —  His  "Treatise 
of  Faith"  —  He  censures  the  preaching  of  the  Mendicants  —  He 
maintains  the  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures,  and  questions  the 
prudence  of  relying  on  the  infallibility  of  the  Church  —  For  these 
opinions  he  is  forbidden  the  King's  presence,  and  expelled  from 
the  House  of  Lords  —  He  is  convened  before  the  Archbishop  for 
heresy  —  Abjures  —  Is  imprisoned  for  life  in  Thorney  Abbey  —  Per- 
secution of  the  Lollards  renewed  under  Henry  VII.  —  Martyrdom 
of  Joanna  Baughton  —  Martyrdom  of  Tylsworth—  Bishop  Nix  — 
Inhumanity  towards  those  who  abjured  —  These  cruelties  eventu~ 
ally  fatal  to  the  Papacy  in  England. 

AFTER  the  death  of  Wiclif,  the  mighty  waters  which 
he  had  sent  forth  to  cleanse  the  land,  continued  to 
flow  onward,  with  a  stream  continually  more  impe- 
tuous and  more  turbid.  Their  strength  was,  unhap- 
pily, increased  by  many  a  tributary  torrent,  which 
fall  into  their  channel,  and  mingled  its  impurities 
with  their  tide.  The  dangers  which  they  threatened, 
from  the  first,  were  doubtless  formidable  —  though, 
probably,  much  exaggerated  by  the  apprehensions  or 
the  indignation  of  the  hierarchy.  At  last,  deep  began 
to  call  on  deep,  with  a  voice  so  fearful,  that  the 
Church  called  loudly  and  passionately  for  the  assist- 
ance of  the  State,  in  arresting  the  progress  of  the 
deluge,  and  saving  the  realm  at  on°,e  from  pollution 
and  devestation. 


360  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

The  work  of  embankment  against  the 
Proceedings       dreaded  inundation,  was  vigorously  pro- 
againsttheWic-  secuted  shortly  after  Wiclif's  removal. 
In  1388,  a  commission  was  issued  to  cer- 
tain individuals,  for  the  seizure  of  all  the   "little 
books"  and  tracts  of  the  heresiarch  and  his  auxilia- 
ries.   This  commission  was  fortified  with  a  power  to 
make  proclamation,  in  the  king's  name,  forbidding  to 
all  persons,  of  whatever  degree,  on  pain  of  imprison- 
ment and  forfeiture,  the  use  of  those  pernicious  writ- 
ings, or  the  support  of  the  scandalous  opinions  which 
they  contained.    And  in  order  that  these  precautions 
might  be  co-extensive  with  the  evil,  letters-patent,  to 
the  same  effect,  were  addressed,  at  the  instance  of 
the  primate,  to  commissioners,  throughout  most  of 
the  counties  of  England.   In  spite  of  these  measures, 
1394.         l^e  ideations  continued  to  become  more 
and  more  formidable ;  till,  in  1394,  they 
were  so  appalling,  that  it  was  thought  needful  to 
invoke  the  personal  exercise  of  the  royal  authority. 
In  that  year,  a  petition  was  presented  to 
liamem  o°n  the  Parliament  on  the  part  of  the  Lollards, 
part     of    the  in  the  form  of  twelve  conclusions,  de- 
nouncing the  abuses  of  the  Church,  and 
demanding  its  reformation,  in  language  of  greater 
boldness  than  had  ever  before  been  hazarded  in  the 
legislature.*     In  addition  to  this,  if  we  may  credit 
Walsingham,  such  was  the  audacity  of 
Turbulence  of  tne   Lollards,  that   they  placarded  the 

the  Lollards.  /•<-.      vk      !«/->«     111          i  -ITT- 

gates  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  West- 
minster Abbey,  with  factious  manifestoes,  and  out- 
rageous accusations  of  the  clergy. f  Richard  was,  at 
that  time,  in  Ireland:  and  so  pressing  was  the  dan- 
ger, that  messengers  were  dispatched  to  him,  with 
the  Archbishop  of  York  and  the  Bishop  of  London  at 

*  This  petition  is  printed  in  Wilkins,  by  the  title  of  " Conchisionea 
Lollardomm,  in  quooani  libello  porrectae  pleno  Parliamento  Regis  An- 
glise."  A.D.  J394.  13  Ric.  ii.  Willc.  Cone.  iii.  p.  221. 

t  WaJs.  p.  3S3. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  361 

their  head,  to  entreat  that  he  would  The  King  re- 
hasten  his  return,  and  succour  the  true  quested  to  re- 
faith  and  the  holy  Church,  which  were  SS,to^hesuS 
then  assailed  with  incredible  insults  ™ur  of  the 
and  afflictions.  Upon  this  application,  Chmch- 
his  Majesty  instantly  repaired  to  England  :  and  find- 
ing that  certain  of  the  knighthood  and 
nobility  of  the  kingdom  were  leaders  and  "rd.n'giy^and 
instigators  of  these  commotions,  he  sum-  menaces  the  pa- 
moned  several  into  his  presence,  and  trons  of  Lollard- 
forbade  them,  with  the  sternest  menaces 
and  rebukes,  to  continue  their  favour  to  the  seditious 
Lollards.  Sir  Richard  Stury  was,  more  especially, 
the  object  of  the  royal  indignation.  He  was  com- 
pelled to  abjure  the  principles  and  tenets  of  these 
dangerous  people ;  and  when  he  had  done  this,  the 
king  in  his  turn  swore  to  him,  that,  if  ever  he  dared 
to  violate  his  oath,  he  should  perish,  without  mercy, 
hy  an  ignominious  death.*  The  faith  of  the  king, 
and  the  zeal  of  the  hierarchy,  were  further  invoked 
hy  an  urgent  epistle  from  Boniface  IX.  Letter  of  Pope 
in  which  he  called  upon  the  Church  to  Boniface  IX. 
root  out  and  destroy  the  maintainers  of  doctrines, 
subversive  of  the  State,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical, 
and  exhorted  the  monarch  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
the  clergy  with  all  the  aids  of  the  secular  authority 
and  power. 

By  these  manifestations  of  vigour,  the  work  of 
open   agitation  was,  for  a   time,  suppressed.     The 
vigilance,  however,  of  Archbishop  Arundel  suffered 
no  relaxation.   A  provincial  council  was  held  by  him 
in  1396,  in  which  eighteen  conclusions 
from  Wiclif 's  Trialcrgus  were  condem-  certain96'  posi- 
ned,  and  a  friar  by  the  name  of  Wodford  tions  of  wicfif 
was  ordered  to  draw  up  an  answer  to  o^.1™16*1    ** 
them.     The  University  of  Oxford  was 
further  called  upon  to  examine  the  writings  of  the 

•  Wals.  p.  388,  339. 

31 


362  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

heretic,  and  to  certify  their  report  thereon  in  the 
Chancery.  To  this  injunction,  that  body  opposed  the 
privilege  of  their  exempt  jurisdiction  ;  a  plea  which 
was  speedily  beaten  down  by  the  Royal  Letters  Pa- 
tent, peremptorily  forbidding  them  to  rely  on  any 
such  immunity.  They  were  further  threatened  with 
a  Visitation  from  the  archbishop,  who  distinctly 
charged  the  whole  University  with  heretical  pravity; 
and  thus  succeeded  in  goading  them  to  reluctant  ac- 
tion. The  result  was,  that,  after  some  opposition, 
twelve  delegates  were  dispatched  to  the  Convocation, 
then  sitting  at  St.  Paul's,  with  a  long  list  of  censur- 
able articles,  extracted  from  the  writings  of  the  Re- 
former; but  accompanied  with  a  protestation  that, 
with  many,  their  authority  was  but  small,  and,  ac- 
cordingly, recommending  these  articles  to  the  consi- 
deration of  "  his  Excellent  Paternity,"  with  a  view 
to  their  being  submitted  to  their  most  holy  Father, 
the  Pope. 

statute  de  He-  ^11  this,  it  will  easily  be  understood, 
retico  c&mbu-  was  little  better  than  to  follow  the  scent 
of  heresy  with  keen  nostrils  but  with  muz- 
zled jaws.  More  promising  times,  however,  were 
near  at  hand.  The  hierarchy  grew  weary  of  a  conflict 
against  innovation,  with  blunt  and  impotent  weapons. 
The  reign  of  a  usurper,  deeply  indebted  to  their  in- 
fluence for  his  crown,  promised  to  arm  them  with 
much  more  destructive  implements.  They  accord- 
ingly forgot  their  loyalty  in  their  zeal,*  and  hoped 

*  "  The  clergy,"  says  Fuller,  "were  the  first  that  led  this  dance  of  dis- 
loyalty.  Thomas  Arundel,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  made  a  sermon, 
on  Samuel's  words,  Vir  dominabitur  populo.  He  showed  himself  a 
satirist  in  the  former,  a  parasite  in  the  latter  part  of  his  sermonr  a  traitor 
in  both.  He  aggravated  the  childish  weakness  of  Richard^  and  his  ina- 
bility to  govern,  magnifying  the  parts  and  perfections  of  Henry  Duke  of 
Lancaster And  thus  ambitious  clergymen  abuse  the  silver  trum- 
pets of  the  sanctuary,  who,  reversing  them,  and  putting  the  wrong  end 
into  their  mouths,  make  what  was  appointed  to  sound  religion,  to  signify 
rebellion."  Church  Hist.  p.  153. 

In  speaking  of  Henry  as  a  usurper,  it  is  not  my  meaning  to  pronounce 
any  judgment  upon  the  deep  constitutional  question,  whether  his  seizure 
of  the  throne  was,  properly,  a  usurpation ;  or  whether  the  change  which 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  363 

that  allegiance  to  the  Church  might  sanctify  treason 
to  their  sovereign.  As  a  reward  for  the  invaluable 
services  of  the  clergy  in  helping  him  to  the  throne, 
Henry  IV.  consented  to  light  up  the  flames  of  reli- 
gious persecution  in  the  land,  and  to  consign  himself 
to  everlasting  dishonour,  by  passing  that  execrable 
law  for  the  burning  of  heretics  alive,  which  was  the 
disgrace  of  our  statute  book  for  two  centuries  and  a 
half! 

It  is,  perhaps,  scarcely  too  much  to  say,  that  by 
that  brutal  enactment,  which  converted  kings  into 
the  slaves  and  butchers  of  the  Church,  the  doom  of 
the  Papacy  in  England  was  sealed.*  It  had  a  long 
respite ;  but,  nevertheless,  this  was  its  death  warrant. 
The  clergy,  it  may  be  frankly  allowed,  had  consider- 
able ground  for  complaint.  The  abuse  heaped  upon 
them  by  the  Lollards  was  not  only  furious  but  indis- 
criminate :  and  besides,  the  Reformers  would  proba- 
bly have  suffered  little  to  remain  untouched,  if  they 
had  been  left  entirely  to  their  own  impulses.  Cathe- 
drals, abbeys,  and  monasteries  might  have  fallen  be- 
fore them :  all  endowments  might  have  been  swept 
away:  and  there  was  no  inconsiderable  danger  lest 
piety  itself  should  have  been  rendered  almost  hateful, 
by  the  unsocial  austerity  which  was  beginning  to 
furrow  the  countenance  and  to  cloud  the  brow  of 
their  religion.  In  addition  to  this,  it  can  scarcely  be 

then  took  place  might  not  more  fitly  be  designated  as  a  Revolution  some- 
what similar  to  that  of  1688.  The  point  is  discussed  by  Mr.  Hallam,  Mid- 
dle Ages,  vol.  iii.  p.  120 — 124.  That  some  of  the  parties  concerned  in 
these  transactions,  and  especially  Henry  himself,  were  more  or  less,  con- 
scious of  that  sort  of  irregularity  and  violence,  which  popularly,  goes  by 
the  name  of  disloyalty  and  usurpation,  will  scarcely  be  questioned :  and 
this  is  all  which  is  necessary  for  my  purpose. 

*  "  We  find  a  remarkable  petition  in  8  Hen.  IV.,  professedly  aimed 
against  the  Lollards,  but  intended,  as  I  strongly  suspect,  in  their  favour. 
It  condemns  persons  preaching  against  the  Catholic  faith  or  sacraments, 
to  imprisonment  against  the  next  parliament,  where  they  were  to  abide 
such  judgment  as  should  be  rendered  by  the  king  and  peers  of  the  realm. 
This  seems  to  supersede  the  burning  statute  of  2  Hen.  IV.,  and  the  spirit- 
ual cognisance  of  heresy.  Hot.  Parl.  p.  583.  See,  too,  p.  626.  The  pe- 
tition was  expressly  granted ;  but  the  clergy,  1  suppose,  prevented  its  ap.. 
pearing  on  the  Roll."  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  vol.  iii.  p.  134,  note  *. 


364  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

denied,  that  the  whole  fabric  of  society  was  in  some 
hazard  from  their  principles.  There  is  reason  to 
believe,  that  by  many  of  them  the  reign  of  the  saints 
upon  earth  was  eagerly  anticipated;  and  that  their 
impatience,  if  not  effectively  curbed,  might  have 
broken  out  into  wild  and  fearful  commotion.  Under 
these  circumstances,  if  the  Church  and  the  State  had 
combined  to  repress,  by  vigorous  laws,  such  mani- 
festations of  opinion  as  threatened  the  peace  and  sta- 
bility of  the  empire,  they  would  have  done  nothing 
which  could  reasonably  merit  the  censures  of  the  most 
enlightened  age.  Instead  of  this,  the  hierarchy  pre- 
ferred dealing  with  the  innovators  rather  as  heretics, 
than  as  traitors  or  incendiaries;  and,  not  only  so,  but 
they  fixed  upon  the  most  absurd  of  all  the  Romish 
dogmas  as  the  test  of  heresv.  The  "  murderous 
question"  by  which  they  brought  their  inquisitions  to 
an  issue,  was,  always,  "  Do  you  or  do  you  not  be- 
lieve, that  material  bread  remains  in  the  Sacrament, 
after  the  words  of  consecration  have  been  uttered  ?" 
and  if  the  answer  was  in  the  affirmative,  nothing 
remained  for  the  delinquent  but  a  death  of  excru- 
ciating anguish.  The  immediate  effect  of  such  pro- 
ceedings was,  that  the  Lollards  were  regarded,  not  as 
suffering  the  penally  due  to  revolutionary  opinions 
and  practices,  but  as  martyrs  in  the  cause  of  Scrip- 
tural truth.  The  more  remote  consequences  were, 
that  a  sentiment  of  abhorrence  was  gradually  im- 
bibed against  the  clergy,  as  monsters  of  inhumanity 
and  injustice.  And  under  the  force  of  these  convic- 
tions, the  Romish  establishment  sunk,  eventually, 
into  the  dust, 

Wiiihm  .«au-  The  first  victim  of  this  detestable 
tre,  the fim  v  c-  law  was  William  Santre,  parish  priest 
tim  of  ih;8  law.  of  gt>  o?yth,  jn  the  city  of  London, 
who  may  justly  be  styled  the  proto-martyr  of  Eng- 
land. He  was  charged  with  eight  articles  of  heresy, 
one  of  which  related  to  the  sacramental  question. 
With  respect  to  this,  he  declared  that  the  consecrated 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  365 

clement  was  the  bread  of  life,  which  came  down  from 
heaven;  but  affirmed  that  it  remained  very  bread,  as 
it  was  before.  Having  thus,  to  use  the  language  of 
Dr.  Lingard,  "  refused  to  give  any  satisfaction  on  the 
subject  of  the  Eucharist"  he  was  declared  to  be  con- 
victed as  a  heretic :  and  "  the  unhappy  man,"  says 
the  same  writer,  "  instead  of  being  shut  up  in  an 
asylum  for  lunatics,  was  burnt  to  death  as  a  male- 
factor, in  the  presence  of  an  immense  multitude." 
We  have  here  a  signal  instance  of  the  artifice  with 
which  unscrupulous  ingenuity  can  contrive  to  insinu- 
ate falsehood,  under  the  aspect  of  candour  and  hu- 
manity. Who  would  not  imagine,  from  a  perusal  of 
the  above  sentence,  that  the  judges  were,  on  this  one 
occasion,  forgetful  of  their  ordinary  gentleness ;  and 
that,  by  a  strain  of  unusual  severity,  an  unfortunate 
maniac  was  punished  as  a  criminal  ?  Who  would 
conjecture,  from  the  words  of  the  historian,  that  the 
victim  was  sacrificed,  according  to  a  law  dictated  by 
that  very  Church  which  pronounced  his  sentence ; 
and  which,  at  that  moment  was  impatient  to  pro- 
nounce the  same  sentence  on  all  similar  "malefac- 
tors ?"* 

*  It  is  affirmed  by  Dr.  Lingard,  that  SautrS,  with  unparalleled  effron- 
tery, denied  his  former  conviction  and  recantation.  This  statement  is 
not  quite  correct.  The  account  of  the  matter  in  the  Arundel  Register,  is 
as  follows :  Sautre  was  first  convened  before  the  Bishop  of  Norwich ;  and, 
on  that  occasion,  abjured  his  opinions,  and  among  them,  that  which  re- 
lated to  the  Eucharist.  On  the  23d  of  May,  1400,  he  appeared  before  the 
primate,  at  the  Chapter-house  of  St.  Paul's.  The  whole  of  the  proceed- 
ings before  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  were  then  read  to  him  ;  and  he  was 
asked  whether  he  was  fully  aware  of  the  import  of  those  proceedings, 
and  whether  he  had  any  thing  to  object  to  them?  to  which  he  replied 
in  the  negative.  He  was  then  charged,  not  only  with  having  maintained 
that  true  material  bread  remains  in  the  sacrament  after  consecration, — 
but  with  having  done  so  subsequently  to  his  abjuration  of  that,  and  the 
rest  of  his  heretical  opinions.  And  here  comes  the  perplexing  part  of 
Sautre's  conduct :  for,  to  this  last  interrogative,  he  replied,  as  it  were 
with  a  smile,  or  rather  a  sneer,  that  he  was  ignorant  of  the  premises ; 
although,  in  public,  he  affirmed  that  he  had  so  held  and  taught,  subse- 
quently to  the  date  of  the  process  before  the  Bishop  of  Norwich.  The 
words  are  as  follows — "  Ad  quae  prssfatus  Willelmus  respondit ;  et  quasi 
ridendo,  sine  deridendo,  preemissa  negavit,  et  ignoravit,  ut  dixit; 
public^  tamen  asseruit  quod  praedictam  (hseresin)  tenuit  et  docuit,  poet 
datam  dicti  processes  facti  per  Episcopum  Norvicensem."  It  would  ap- 


366  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

As  this  was  the  first  holocaust  offered  up  on  the 
altar  of  the  mass,  it  was  conducted  with  punctilious 
solemnity,  in  order  that  future  inquisitors  might  be 
provided  with  an  exact  precedent  for  the  regulation 
of  their  proceedings.  The  offender  was  stripped  of 
all  his  successive  functions,  from  the  order  of  priest 
to  that  of  sexton.  The  cap  of  a  layman  was,  next, 
placed  upon  his  head,  and  he  was  then  consigned, 
with  the  usual  disgusting  and  hypocritical  recom- 
mendation, to  the  tender  mercy  of  the  secular  arm. 
By  the  secular  arm  the  accursed  pile  was,  according- 
ly", lighted;  and,  for  the  first  time  in  England,  the 
flames  of  persecution  arose  towards  heaven,  to  out- 
rage and  insult  the  God  of  all  mercy  and  consolation ! 
Proceedings  of  It  would  be  tedious'and  unprofitable, 
Archbishop  to  commemorate  at  length,  the  incessant 
activity  with  which  the  primate  con- 
tinued to  labour  for  the  suppression  of  Wiclif's  wri- 
tings, for  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  and  for  the  ruin 
of  the  Lollards;  or  to  recite  the  varied  apparatus 
of  canons  and  constitutions,*  which  he  framed  for 
these  purposes,  in  the  course  of  the  several  following 
years.  I  therefore  pass  on  to  the  accession  of  Henry 
V. ;  a  period,  at  which  the  panic  raised  by  the 
designs  imputed  to  these  people,  appears  to  have 
Continued  vio-  r?nched  ils  height.  It  is  affirmed  by 
lence  of  the  Walsiugham  that  the  Lollards  had  fixecl 
placards  to  the  doors  of  the  London 
churches,  proclaiming  that  a  hundred  thousand  strong 
arms  were  in  readiness  to  enforce  their  opinions ;  and 
he  adds,  that  they  were  instigated  to  these  outrages 
by  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  otherwise  Lord  Cobham.  The 
history  of  the  transactions  in  which  this  nobleman 

p3ar,  therefore,  that  trn  premises  (praernissa)  wh:ch  he,  most  unac- 
countably, d;d  deny,  were,— not  his  recantation,— but  his  sutrequent 
perseverance  in  preaching  the  doctrine  he  had  renounced.  What  can 
poss.bly  have  tempted  him  to  this  de.ilal,  it  is  extremely  d.fficult  to 
imagine;  for,  when  it  was  finally  demanded  of  him,  why  lie  should  not 
tw  pronounced  a  relapsed  heretic,  he  had  no  cause  whatever  to  allege! 
See  Wtlk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  p.  258. 
*  They  may  be  found  in  Wilk.  Cone.  voL  iii.  See  also  Lewis,  c.  vii 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF,  367 

is  said  to  have  been  implicated,  is  involved  in  more 
perplexity  than  I  can  here  attempt  to  unravel.  With 
regard  to  the  account  of  these  matters  delivered  by  the 
Chronicler  himself,  it  has  been  justly  remarked,  that 
"  it  is  all  a  series  of  surmise  and  rumour,  of  alarm 
and  anticipation.  That  any  plot  was  formed,  there 
is  no  evidence ;  and  the  prooability  is,  that  artful 
measures  were  taken  to  alarm  the  mind  of  the  king 
into  nnger  and  cruelty,  by  charges  of  treason,  and 
rebellion,  and  meditated  assassination."*  The  result, 
however,  was, — that  the  prisons  of  London  were 
rilled,  that  nine  and  thirty  persons  were  suspended 
by  chains  from  a  gallows,  and  burnt  alive  by  a  fire, 
kindled  from  beneath, — that  Lord  Cobham  eventually 
perished  in  the  same  manner, — and  that  a  vindictive 
statute  was  passed  against  the  Lollards ;  of  which 
one  principal  provision  was,  that  all  persons  employ- 
ed in  civil  offices,  from  the  chancellor  downward, 
should  take  an  oath  for  the  destruction  of  Lollardy. 

The  preamble  to  this  statute  affirms,  Law  compej- 
that  ''great  rumours,  congregations,  and  in^'ei!  pen-one 
insurrections,  had  been  raised  in  the  !n.civil  office  £ 

r  -~    '  ,        ,     ,        ,.  ,.  .      ta.ce    an     oath 

realm  or  England,  by  divers  liege  sub-  arainst  Lollard- 
jects  of  the  king,  as  well  by  those  who  ism- 
belonged  to  the  heretical  sect  called  Lollardie,  as  by 
others  of  their  confederacy,  excitation,  and  abetment, 
with  a  view  to  annul  and  subver*  the  Christian  faith, 
and  the  law  of  God  in  this  kingdom  ;  also  to  destroy 
our  sovereign  lord  the  king  himself,  and  all  manner 
of  estates  of  this  realm,  as  well  spiritual  as  temporal ; 
and,  moreover,  all  manner  of  policy,  and,  finally,  all 
the  laws  of  the  land."  With  every  allowance  for 
the  exaggerations  of  malice,  of  bigotry,  and  of 
terror,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  believe,  that  im» 
putations  so  dark  could  have  been  wholly  fictitious  or 
.unfounded.  At  the  same  time,  however,  nothing 
can  be  more  incredible  than  the  assertion,  contained 

'  Turner's  History  of  England,  part  iii.  c.  vil  p.  308. 


368  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

in  this  recital,  that  the  object  of  the  supposed  con- 
spirators was  no  less  than  the  dissolution  of  the 
whole  fabric  of  society  throughout  the  land.  Arundel 
himself, — whose  words  these  virtually  were, — must 
surely  have  been  conscious  that  he  was  putting  a 
gross  and  cruel  falsehood  into  the  mouth  of  Parlia- 
ment, for  the  purpose  of  heaping  infamy  and  detesta- 
tion on  the  cause  of  Lollardism,  and  the  memory  of 
Wiclif.  That  the  ranks  of  the  reformers  may,  pro- 
bably, have  been  disgraced  by  the  levelling  fanaticism 
of  some  among  its  partisans,  it  would  be  preposterous 
to  question.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  it  should 
never  be  forgotten,  that  the  records  of  their  persecu- 
tion are  wholly  silent  on  the  subject  of  sedition  or 
conspiracy.  Religious  heresy  is  me  crime  for  which 
they  suffered,  not  political  incendiarism.  They  were 
not  gibbeted  for  compassing  the  king's  death,  or 
contriving  the  destruction  of  the  civil  institutions  of 
the  kingdom.  They  were  burnt  alive  for  refusing  to 
affirm  that  there  is  no  material  bread  remaining  in 
the  Eucharist,  after  certain  syllables  have  been  pro- 
nounced over  it  by  the  priest.  Had  any  among  their 
numbers  been  duly  convicted  of  treasonable  practices, 
and  punished  as  enemies  to  their  king  and  country, 
their  adversaries  might  justly  have  escaped  the 
curses, — perhaps,  they  might  even  have  merited  the 
praises, — of  posterity.  As  it  is,  we  are  required  to 
believe  that  all  human  crimes  were  involved  in  the 
single  enormity  of  questioning  the  metaphysics  of 
the  Church  of  Rome — a  demand  which  can  raise  no 
other  feelings  than  those  of  disgust  and  horror  against 
the  persecutors. 

The  measure  of  these  iniquities  was 
Inquilftorial  me*  UP  J»Y  '£?  following  constitution, 
constitution  of  made  by  Archbishop  Chicheley,  in  1416. 
^rchbishopChi-  it  enjoined  "  all  suffragans  and  arch- 
deacons, with  their  officials  and  com- 
missaries, to  make  inquisition,  twice  in  every  year, 
after  persons  suspected  of  heresy.  Wherever  reputed 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  369 

heretics  were  reported  to  dwell,  three  or  more  of  the 
parish  were  compelled  to  take  an  oath  that  they  would 
certify  to  the  suffragans,  or  their  officers,  what  per- 
sons were  heretics,  who  kept  private  conventicles, 
who  differed  in  life  and  manners  from  the  common 
conversation  of  the  faithful,  who  had  suspected  books 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  or  were  conversant  with  per- 
sons suspected  of  error.  On  such  information,  pro- 
cess was  to  issue  against  the  accused,  who  were  to  be 
delivered  over  to  the  secular  court,  or  imprisoned  till 
the  next  convocation."*  By  this  accursed  ordinance 
the  horrors  of  the  writ  for  burning  heretics  were 
completed.  It  set  up  an  inquisition  in  every  parish. 
It  sent  terror  and  distrust  into  every  family.  Every 
dwelling  was  haunted  by  discord  and  suspicion  :  so 
that  a  man's  bitterest  foes  were  often  those  of  his 
own  household  and  blood.  And  the  fruits  of  this 
flagitious  system  were,  that  multitudes  were  con- 
signed to  the  dungeon  or  the  stake,  by  the  treachery, 
or  the  weakness,  of  their  nearest  kindred,  or  their 
dearest  connexions.! 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  "  curses  Effect  of  these 
not  loud  but  deep,"  must  have  been  mut-  severities. 
tered,  from  one  end  of  the  realm  to  the  other,  against 
these  triumphs  of  a  Church,  which  maintained  her 
supremacy  by  the  stake  and  the  sword,  by  massacre 
and  perfidy.  But  the  fires  which  were  trodden  down, 
were  not  extinct.  They  still  lived  under  the  ashes 
of  martyrdom ;  and  at  length  they  broke  forth,  with 
rnigLt  and  fury  irresistible,  the  ministers  of  God's 
righteous  retribution.  The  successful  usurpation  of 
Henry  Bolingbroke  had  been  the  result  of  a  guilty 
league  between  bigotry  and  ambition  :  and  where 
were  the  Bolingbrokes  in  little  more  than  half  a  cen* 
tury  from  that  odious  compact?  Where  was  the 
sceptre  with  which,  as  with  a  sword  of  flame,  the 
faithful  witnesses  of  a  good  confession  had  been  con» 

*  Wilk.  Cone.  vol.  iii.  378.  t  Lewis,  c.  vii.  p.  135, 136, 


370  LIFE  OF   WICLIF. 

sumed  ?  Where  was  the  throne,  whose  weight  had 
pressed  down,  to  the  very  dust,  not  only  the  rights  of 
conscience,  but  the  laws  of  humanity  ?  They  were 
tossed  into  that  heap  of  ruins,  wherewith  the  down- 
fall of  criminal  greatness  is  incessantly  loading  the 
earth — a  dreadful  and  ever-growing  monument  of 
the  vengeance  of  Him  who  cannot  look  upon  iniquity. 
There  was  rottenness  in  a  dynasty  which  had  incor- 
porated itself  with  the  corruptions  of  a  merciless 
superstition.  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods 
came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house, 
and  it  fell:  and  great  indeed  was  the  fall  thereof! 
But  its  fall  was,  eventually,  the  rising  of  the  truth, 
and  the  riches  of  the  world. 

Bishop  Pecock  That  the  Church  in  this  century  was 
writes  against  possessed  by  the  fiercest  spirit  of  intole- 
Loiiards.  ranee,  is  manifest  from  the  fact,  that 

its  fury  was  not  satisfied  with  the  victims  offered  in 
honour  of  her  sacramental  mystery.  She  seized 
upon  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  her  own  champions, 
whose  principal  error  was,  that  he  was  too  enlight- 
ened and  candid  for  the  age,  and  condescended  to  ad- 
dress the  reason  of  the  people,  instead  of  contenting 
himself  with  an  appeal  to  their  credulity  or  their 
fears.  The  distinguished  individual  in  question 
was  Dr.  Reginald  Pecock,  bishop,  first  of  St. 
Asaph,  and  afterwards  of  Chichester.  He  has  been 
justly  described  as  a  man  of  rare  ability,  and  still 
rarer  moderation  ;  and,  in  power  and  gravity  of  writ- 
ing, as,  almost,  the  Hooker  of  his  day.  He  began 
his  career,  indeed,  in  a  direction  as  orthodox  as  the 
hierarchy  itself  could  possibly  desire  :  for  he  under- 
1447  took,  in  a  sermon  at  St.  Paul's  Cross, 
He  defends  the  the  formal  vindication  of  several  abuses 
bishops.  an(j  delinquencies,  which  had  been  loud- 

ly arraigned  by  Wiclif,  and  which  had  called  forth, 
both  from  Catholic  and  Reformer,  an  incessant  outcry 
of  indignation  or  of  scorn.  He  ventured  to  affirm 
that  bishops  were,  by  the  very  nature  of  their  office. 


LITE   OF  WICLIF.  371 

exempt  from  the  necessity  of  preaching ;  that  they 
are  under  no  obligation  to  strict  residence  on  their 
sees ;  and  that  they  may  receive  their  bishoprics  by 
Papal  provision,  and  pay  first-fruits  or  annates  to 
the  Pontiff,  without  justly  incurring  the  charge  of 
simony.  These  were  desperately  unpopular  topics  ; 
and  Dr.  Gascoigne*  does  not  hesitate  to  ascribe  the 
civil  convulsions  of  those  times,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  the  abandonment  of  their  duties  by  the  prelates  of 
England,  and  to  this  unblushing  vindication  of  their 
neglect  by  one  of  their  own  body.  "  Since,"  says 
he,  "  Bishop  Reginald  Pecock,  and  other  bishops  ad- 
vanced by  the  king,  have  asserted  that  bishops  are 
not  obliged  to  preach,  themselves,  Almighty  God  hath 
preached  to  some  purpose  in  England,  by  actually 
punishing  the  bishops,  and  suffering  them  to  be 
punished."!  It  must  not,  however,  be  concluded 
from  this  vehement  censure,  that  Pecock's  apology 
for  his  brethren  was  dictated  by  his  defective  sense 
of  the  sacred  importance  of  their  duties.  His  defence 
is  grounded  on  the  principle,  that  bishops  are  ap- 
pointed to  a  higher  function  than  that  of  inculcating 
the  elements  of  faith  and  holiness  from  the  pulpit.  If 
they  were  exempt  from  that  burden,  it  was  that  they 
might  be  more  able  to  exercise  an  effectual  superin- 
tendence over  those  who  were  ordained  to  bear  it,  and 
that  they  might  have  leisure  for  the  more  perfect  and 
important  office  of  teaching;  that  is,  of  enforcing 
religious  truth  by  evidence  and  argument.  Again, — 
with  regard  to  the  absence  of  bishops  from  their 
diocese,  he  maintained  that  there  were  many  reason- 
able causes  which  may  justify  their  residence  else- 
where, and  might  render  it  more  beneficial  to  the 
Church  and  the  realm,  than  a  more  constant  confine- 
ment to  the  seat  of  their  episcopal  office ;  especially 
in  those  days,  when  the  services  of  churchmen  were 
so  often  required,  as  "  the  sage  people  of  his  majes- 

*  Diet.  Theol.  Episcopus.  t  Lewis's  Life  of  Pecock,  p.  19. 


372  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

ty's  council."  His  defence  of  Papal  provisions,  and 
payment  of  first-fruits,  is  entirely  grounded  on  the 
prodigious  absurdity,  (then,  however,  current  in  the 
Church,)  that  the  Pope,  as  universal  pastor,  is  lord 
of  all  the  benefices  in  Christendom,  and  that  it  cannot 
be  simoniacal  to  render  him  a  part,  when  the  whole 
is  rightfully  his  own. 

The  next  performance  of  the  bishop 

'Represser."  wag  a  work  lQ  whjL.h  |le  give  tnc  t[tje 
of  Represser,  its  object  being  to  repress  the  indiscrimi- 
nate spirit  of  vituperation  which  had  gone  forth  against 
ecclesiastics.  In  this  tract  he  labours  further  in 
vindication  of  the  bishops  and  clergy;  and,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  mildness  and  peace,  endeavours  to  pro- 
duce such  an  exposition  of  the  doctrines  and  practices 
of  the  Church,  as  might  reconcile  the  dissenting  Lol- 
larJs  to  her  communion.  This  treatise  is  extremely 
valuable,  not  only  asa  monument  of  genuine  Christian 
liberality;  but  as  an  interesting  exhibition  of  the 
state  of  the  controversy,  in  that  day,  between  the 
establishment  and  its  adversaries.  The  arguments  in 
favour  of  various  practices,  which  the  reformers  de- 
rided and  condemned,  are  often  enforced  with  re- 
markable ingenuity  and  acuteness.  His  justification 
of  pilgrimages,  and  the  religious  use  of  images,  more 
especially,  is  conducted,  on  the  whole,  with  peculiar 
felicity  and  candour.  Reliques,  he  contended,  were 
to  be  valued  only  as  "  rememorative  signs"*  of  de- 
parted saints,  the  "devout  beholding"  of  which,  was 
approved  "  by  the  doom  of  kindly  well-disposed  rea- 
son." In  one  respect,  however,  if  we  are  to  judge 
by  his  silence,  he  found  this  matter  rather  uritnct- 

*  Pascal,  two  centuries  later,  took  infinitely  higher  ETDUIK!  than  this. 
"The  Holy  Ghost,"  he  says,  "  reposes,  invisibly,  in  the  reliques  of  those 
who  have  died  in  the  gra^e  of  God,  until  he  appears,  visibly,  m  ths  resur- 
rection. And  this  is  the  reason  why  the  rel  qu  ;s  of  saints  are  so  worthy 
of  veneration.  For  God  never  abandons  tho^e  that  are  h  s,  not  even  in 
the  sepulchre ;  where  their  bodies,  though  daad  in  the  sight  of  men,  are 
alive  before  God,  because  sin  abides  in  them  no  more." — Pensees. 
Never,  surely,  was  so  superb  a  disguise  thrown  by  imaginative  piety 
over  absurdity  and  imposture ! 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  373 

able.  In  his  defence  of  images,  and  pilgrimages, 
and  veneration  of  reliques,  he  has  not  a  single  syllable 
on  the  subject  of  indulgences ;  the  promise  of  which 
was,  notoriously,  the  grand  motive  that  attached  the 
populace  to  these  superstitions,  and  the  main  object 
of  attack  to  Wiclif  and  his  followers. 

The  Represser,  it  would  appear,  notwithstanding 
the  moderation  which  pervaded  the  whole  work,  ex- 
posed the  bishop  to  no  suspicion,  or  at  least  to  no 
open  displeasure,  from  the  Church.  He  was  still  high 
in  prosperity  and  honour ;  and  in  1450  was  promoted 
from  the  see  of  St.  Asaph  to  that  of  Chichester.  It 
was  not  till  after  his  translation  that  he  His  "Treatise  of 
composed  his  Treatise  of  Faith,  which  Faith." 
proved  the  source  of  all  his  subsequent  afflictions ; 
for  it  was  here  that  the  temper  of  concession  and  of 
candour  began  to  manifest  itself  in  a  tone  which 
sounded  most  ominously  in  the  ears  of  the  Papacy. 
In  the  first  place,  he  had  the  boldness  to  He  censures  the 
assail,  with  as  little  mercy  as  Wiclif  him-  preaching  of  the 
self,  the  contemptible  style  of  preaching  Mendicants- 
introduced  by  the  Mendicants,  who  had  substituted 
fable  and  romance  for  the  eternal  truth  of  the  Gospel, 
and  "  split  the  ears"  of  their  staring  congregations 
with  vociferous  encomiums  of  their  saints.  Pecock 
was  far  too  learned  and  enlightened  to  tolerate  these 
pernicious  extravagances.  In  his  honest  zeal,  he 
arraigned  the  Friars  of  heresy  and  superstition  ;  and, 
by  way  of  imbodying  his  censure  in  a  single  phrase, 
he  ventured  to  give  them  the  ridiculous  title  of  pulpit- 
bawlers.  This,  however,  might,  possibly,  have  been 
endured ;  for  the  intrusive  arrogance  of  the  Mendicant 
orders  had  long  been  hateful  to  multitudes,  both  of 
the  secular  and  monastic  clergy.  But,  not  content 
with  this,  Pecock,  in  an  evil  hour  for  his  peace, 
though,  perhaps,  a  bright  one  for  his  fame,  placed 
himself  between  the  main  pillars,  that  supported  the 
fabric  of  the  Papacy,  and  shook  them.  He  main- 
tained, first,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  the  sub- 


374  I.IFE   OF   WICLIF. 

....  stantial  foundation  of  our  faith,  the  only 

Maintains     the        i  ,      •,      /.  •,    •,  J 

sufficiencyofthe  rule  or  standard  of  revealed  or  superna- 
Scripture?,  and  tural  truth  :  and,  secondly,  that  it  is  a 
proSSoeofuS  vain  an(i  hopeless  thipg  to  attempt  the 
ging  the  infaiii-  reduction  of  the  Lollards  by  means  of  a 
rSSLi  °f  the  principle  so  questionable  as  the  infalli- 

Uhurcn.  f»t«          /»    i  •       i        i        TT  i  • 

bility  of  the  priesthood.  Upon  this,  as 
might  be  expected,  certain  of  the  high-priests  began  to 
rend  their  clothes,  and  to  cry  out  blasphemy ! 

It  is  a  very  remarkable  circumstance  that  the  tem- 
poral lords  joined  heartily  in  the  persecution  which 
.  now  commenced  against  Pecock,  if  they 
io?sheTfo°rbid-  did  not  actually  begin  it.  The  reasons 
den  the  king's  for  this  may,  probably,  have  been,  that 
Sailed'  f£m  he  had  lost  his  patron  the  Duke  of  Suf- 
the  House  of  folk,  by  whom  he  is  said  to  have  been 
promoted  to  the  see  of  Chichester,  and 
that  several  of  his  doctrines  were  extremely  un- 
popular among  the  laity, — more  especially  the  posi- 
tion, that  the  Pope  was  master  of  all  the  benefices  in 
Christendom.  But,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
Cause,  in  1457  he  was  expelled  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  forbidden  the  King's  presence  ;  and  so  bitter  was 
the  exasperation  against  him,  that  the  peers  refused 
to  proceed  with  any  business,  so  long  as  Pecock  con- 
Convened  before  tmued  in  the  House.  At  last,  he  was 
the  archbishop  brought  before  the  primate,  on  a  charge 
of  heresy,  combined  with  other  accusa- 
tions, framed  to  all  appearance  with  a  view  to  de- 
prive him  of  all  sympathy  from  the  people.  On  these 
charges  he  was  convicted,  and  the  only  choice  left 
him,  was  that  of  abjuration  or  the  stake.  By  this 
tremendous  alternative  the  fortitude  of  the  bishop 
was  overpowered.  He  replied  that  "it  would  be 
better  for  him  to  become  the  gazing-stock  of  the 
people,  than  to  desert  the  law  of  faith,  and  to  be  sent 
Ab'ures  a^lcr  ^s  death  mto  hell  fire.  He,  there- 
fore, made  it  his  desire  to  abjure,  and 
so  to  frame  his  life  in  future  as  to  give  no  cause  for 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  375 

suspicion  or  reproach."  By  his  biographer*  this  an- 
swer is  stigmatized  as  weak  and  abject;  but  "  there 
is  more,"  as  Fuller  observes,  "  required  to  make  a 
valiant  man  than  to  call  another  a  coward."  It 
should,  moreover,  in  all  righteousness  and  charity, 
be  remembered,  that  Pecock  never  professed  any 
renunciation  of  his  fidelity  to  the  Romish  Church. 
For  twenty  years  he  had  been  her  faithful,  strenuous, 
though  too  candid  and  honourable,  champion.  It  may, 
therefore,  be  reasonably  presumed  that  he  sincerely 
dreaded  the  very  thought  of  rebelliously  opposing  his 
judgment  to  hers ;  and  that  his  conduct,  on  this  try- 
ing occasion,  was  prompted  by  motives  similar  to  those 
which  impelled  Fenelon  to  read  publicly,  in  his  own 
cathedral,  the  condemnation  of  his  own  opinions. 

His  abjuration  was  performed  under  every  circum- 
stance of  humiliation,  which  could  make  it  bitter, 
almost  beyond  the  bitterness  of  death.  He  was 
brought  to  St.  Paul's  Cross,  in  his  stole,  or  episcopal 
habit,  and  placed  at  the  archbishop's  feet.  His  books 
were  delivered  by  his  own  hand  to  the  officer  appoint- 
ed to  cast  them  into  the  flames.  In  the  presence  of 
20,000  people  he  then  read  his  abjuration,  wherein 
he  confessed  himself  a  miserable  sinner,  who  had 
before  walked  in  darkness,  but  was  now,  by  God's 
mercy,  brought  back  to  the  right  way;  and  he  ex- 
horted all  men,  in  the  name  and  virtue  of  Almighty 
God,  to  give  no  faith  or  credence  to  his  pernicious 
doctrines.  The  cup  of  his  affliction,  however,  was 
not  yet  drained.  He  had  still  to  endure  the  venomous 
contumely  of  his  enemies,  and  to  taste  the  parental 
mercies  of  the  Church  he  had  defended.  She  did  not, 
indeed,  burn  him  alive ;  but  it  may,  almost  literally, 
be  said  that  she  buried  him  alive;  for,  T<!  ;n™r:annpfi 

_  .       .         .  .  c  -i  •     \  •   •>  .,7is      inipiisoneu 

after  stripping  him  of  his  bishopric  she  for  life  in  Thor- 
consigned  him  to  the  most  rigorous  im-  ney  Abbey- 
prisonment,  for  life,  within  the  walls  of  a  monastery, 

*  Lewis,  p.  158, 


376  LIFE   OF  WICLIF, 

He  was  sent  to  Thorney  Abbey  in  Cambridgeshire; 
and  confined  there  to  a  single  chamber,  which  he  was 
on  no  account  to  leave.  All  converse  with  him  was 
strictly  forbidden.  He  was  debarred  from  the  use  of 
pen  or  ink,  or  paper,  or  even  of  books,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  mass-book,  a  Psalter,  a  legend,  and  a 
Bible.  And  his  diet,  for  the  first  quarter  of  his  im- 
prisonment, was  to  be  the  same  with  the  daily  allow- 
ance of  the  convent;  afterwards  that  of  a  sick  or 
aged  brother,  with  such  further  indulgence  as  his 
health  and  years  might  require.  How  long  the  bishop 
survived  under  this  cruel  captivity  is  unknown.  It 
is  probable  that  his  miseries  were  shortly  terminated : 
though  various  accounts  are  given  of  his  death. 

Such  was  the  end  of  this  eminent  churchman,  un- 
doubtedly among  the  most*  learned  of  his  age  and 
country.  His  spirit  was  far  too  equitable  and  mode- 
rate for  the  period  in  which  he  lived.  As  an  instance 
of  this,  he,  like  the  heresiarch,  whose  doctrines  he 
combated,  ventured  to  address  his  countrymen  in 
their  own  language,  on  questions  involving  the  salva- 
tion of  their  souls  ;  a  practice  which  was  thought  to 
draw  aside  the  curtains  of  mystery,  and  to  invite  the 
vulgar  gaze  to  the  secrets  of  the  chamber  within.  He 
fell  into  another  egregious  controversial  solecism.  In- 
stead of  assailing  the  Lollards  with  asperity  and  me- 
nace, he  treated  the  accursed  separatists  with  gen- 
tleness and  patience, — he  heard  their  scruples  and 
objections  with  paternal  mildness, — nay,  he  even 
thought  that  heretics  might  lawfully  be  argued  with, 
before  they  were  finally  delivered  over  to  the  secu- 
lar arm,  as  incorrigibly  obstinate.  This,  of  itself, 
was  a  practical  heresy,  of  the  darkest  complexion,  in 
the  eyes  of  a  priesthood,  who  would  hear  of  nothing 
but  implicit  faith.  In  short,  he  inadvertently  dashed 

*  His  learning,  however,  like  most  of  the  learning  of  his  time,  com- 
prehended but  little  Greek.  He  confounds  Cephas  with  itt(pa\r),  and 
translates  it  head :  and  he  derives  orthodoxy  from  opSoj,  right,  and 
$o$a,  glory!  The  Life  of  Bishop  P.,  by  Mr.  Lewis,  is  a  very  interest- 
ing and  instructive  volume. 


LIFE   OF    WICLIF.  377 

his  head  against  that  bulwark  of  adamant,  which  had 
been  raised  to  make  the  Papal  fortress  impregnable — 
the  infallibility  of  the  Church :  a  doctrine  of  which, 
in  that  age,  it  might  be  truly  said,  that  he  who  fell 
upon  it  should  be  shattered,  and  he  on  whom  it  fell 
should  be  crushed  to  dust.  His  fate  was  a  dreadful 
warning  to  the  inquisitive  world  !  If  Bishop  Pecock, 
the  illustrious  defender  of  the  Church,  was  to  be  in- 
tombed  in  a  dungeon,  what  was  to  be  expected  by 
those  who  assailed  her  doctrines,  and  execrated  her 
tyranny  and  corruption  ? 

It  is  a  very  memorable  circumstance  in  the  story 
of  this  extraordinary  man,  that  his  life  was  passed  in 
a  conflict  with  the  errors  of  Wiclif,  and  yet  that, 
after  his  death,  his  name  was  solemnly  coupled  with 
the  name  of  the  Reformer,  and,  in  that  company  was, 
in  due  form,  consigned  to  immortality.  The  founda- 
tion of  King's  College,  Cambridge,  took  place  about 
fourteen  years  before  Pecock's  conviction  and  im- 
prisonment :  and  such  was  the  zeal  and  orthodoxy  of 
his  Majesty,  or  his  advisers,  that  a  clause  was  added 
to  the  statutes  of  the  society,  providing,  that  every 
scholar,  on  the  expiration  of  his  probationary  years, 
should  take  an  oath,  that  he  would  not  favour  the  con- 
demned opinions  or  heresies  of  John  Wiclif,  Reginald 
Pecock,  or  any  other  heretic,  so  long  as  he  should 
live,  on  pain  of  perjury  and  expulsion,  ipso  facto.* 
And  it  is  still  more  curious  that,  in  spite  of  this  royal 
enactment,  King's  College  turned  out  to  be  one  of  the 
most  heretical  societies  in  the  University ! 

The  whole  period  of  intestine  commotion,  and 
more  especially  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  furnish,  as 
Fulkr  remarks,  but  scanty  materials  for  Church 
story.  "The  sound  of  bells  in  the  steeples  was 

*  Item,  statuimus,  ordinamus,  et  volumus,  quod  quilibet  Scholaris,  in 
admissione  sua  in  Collegium  nostrum  Regale  predictum  post  annos  pro- 
bationis,  juret  quod  non  favebit  opinionibus  damnatis,  errpribus,  ant 
heresibus,  Johannis  Wiclif,  Reginalds  Pecock,  neque  alicujus  alterius 
heretici,  quamdiu  vixerit  in  hoc  mundo,  sub  pena  perjurii.  et  expulsionjg 
ipso  facto.  Lewis's  Pecock,  p.  173. 

32* 


378  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

drowned  with  the  noise  of  drums  and  trumpets.  And 
yet  this  good  was  done  by  the  civil  wars,  that  they 
diverted  the  prelates  from  troubling  the  Lollards  ;  so 
that  this  very  storm  was  a  shelter  to  those  poor  souls, 
and  the  heat  of  these  intestine  enmities  cooled  the 
Pereecution  of  persecution  against  them."  On  the  ac- 
the  Lollards  re-  cession  of  Henry  VII.  however,  the  flame 

K£  mnder  burst  *°rth  once  more-  Tne  merciless 
spirit  of  the  house  of  Lancaster  seemed 
to  revive  in  the  person  of  him  who  was  to  unite  the 
conflicting  claims  of  the  two  adverse  families,  and 
whom  all  parties  were  disposed  to  hail  as  the  minis- 
ter of  peace  and  reconciliation.  "  Observable  was 
the  carriage  of  this  prince — (I,  again,  am  citing  the 
words  of  Fuller) — towards  the  Pope,  the  clergy,  and 
the  poor  Lollards.  To  the  Pope  he  was  submissive, 
not  servile,  his  devotion  being  seldom  without  de- 
sign ;  so  using  his  Holiness,  that  he  seldom  stooped 
down  to  him  in  any  low  reverence,  but  with  the 
same  gesture,  he  took  up  something  in  order  to  his 
own  ends.  To  the  clergy,  of  desert,  he  was  very 
respectful,  trusting  and  employing  them  in  State 
affairs  more  than  his  nobility.  To  the  dissolute  and 
vicious  clergy  he  was  justly  severe,  and  pared  their 
privileges,  ordaining  that  clerks  convict  should  be 
burnt  in  the  hand ;  both  that  they  might  taste  a  cor- 
poreal punishment,  and  carry  a  brand  of  infamy. 
To  the  Lollards  (so  were  God's  people  nick- 
named) he  was  more  cruel  than  his  predecessors ."  One 
revolting  instance  of  his  wanton  inhumanity  is  re- 
lated by  Fox.  There  was,  at  Canterbury,  an  aged 
priest,  so  firmly  rooted  in  the  heresies  of  Wiclif,  that 
all  the  clerks  and  doctors  of  the  place  were  unable 
to  remove,  or  even  to  shake  him.  The  obstinacy  of 
this  confessor  reached  the  ears  of  the  King,  who  felt 
impelled  to  undertake  the  adventure  of  reclaiming 
him,  though  "  we  never  read  before,"  says  Fuller, 
"  of  his  Majesty's  disputing,  save  when  he  disputed 
Bosworth  Field  with  King  Richard  the  Third."  A 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  379 

royal  polemic  is  proverbially  irresistible.  The  Chris- 
tian divine,  like  the  philosopher  of  old,  was  unable  to 
withstand  the  master  of  legions,  and  surrendered  his 
opinions  to  the  force  of  imperial  logic.  The  con- 
queror, however,  made  a  most  detestable  use  of  his 
victory.  The  unhappy  convert  was  burnt  immedi- 
ately on  his  abjuration,  and  derived  no  other  advan- 
tage from  his  encounter  with  the  king,  than  the  benefit 
of  perishing  in  communion  with  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  martyrdom  of  an  aged  woman,  Martyrdom  of 
named  Joanna  Baughton,  has  left  an-  Joanna  Baugh- 
other  blot  upon  the  reign  of  this  cold-  lon> 
blooded  monarch.  She  was  upwards  of  fourscore 
when  she  was  called  to  suffer,  for  her  faithful  ad- 
herence to  the  opinions  of  the  Reformer,  whom  she 
honoured  as  an  eminent  saint.  Her  venerable  years 
afforded  no  protection  against  the  remorseless  bigotry 
of  the  age.  She  was  informed,  that  the  stake  would 
be  the  certain  recompense  of  her  perseverance  in 
misbelief.  But  the  terrors  of  the  threat  were,  in  her 
judgment,  not  worthy  to  be  compared  to  the  comfort 
she  experienced  in  the  love  of  God,  and  the  protection 
of  his  holy  angels.  She  rendered  her  soul,  in  the 
midst  of  the  flames,  with  admirable  constancy ;  and 
her  ashes  were  collected  as  precious  memorials  of  her 
martyrdom.  But  the  measure  of  atrocity  remained 
yet  to  be  filled  up.  At  Amersworth,  a  heretic,  named 
Tylsworth,  was  consigned  to  the  flames :  Martyrdom  of 
and,  with  a  refinement  in  barbarity,  Tylsworth. 
which  might  excite  the  envy  of  a  North-American 
savage,  his  only  daughter,  who  had  also  fallen  under 
suspicion,  was  compelled  to  kindle  the  pile,  that  was 
to  consume  her  own  father  by  an  agonizing  death. 
One  monster  there  was,  in  those  days,  who  disgraced 
the  priesthood,  by  adding  coarse  and  vulgar  insult  to 
brutal  inhumanity.  Bishop  Nix,  of  Nor-  _. ,  __. 

.   i  n  J  .    c  r      \  •       i  Bishop  Nix. 

wich,  immortally  infamous  for  his  alac- 
rity in  persecution,  when  he  spoke  of  persons  sup- 
posed to  carry  about  with  them  the  taint  of  heresy, 


380  LIFE    OF   WICLIF. 

described  them  as  men  who  savoured  of  the  frying' 
pan.  The  extent  of  havoc,  inflicted  by  this  awful  in- 
fatuation of  the  clergy,  and  the  sovereign,  may  be 
tolerably  estimated,  even  from  the  somewhat  sportive 
hyperbole  of  a  correspondent  of  Erasmus,  who  de- 
clares, that  the  frequency  of  executions  at  Smithfield 
had  advanced  the  price  of  firewood  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  London.  That  the  earthly  and  devilish  wisdom 
of  the  sovereign,  and  the  hierarchy,  could  have  made 
a  single  sincere  convert,  is  utterly  incredible.  That 
it  gradually  alienated  the  heart  of  England,  is  most 
certain.  It  is  true,  that  the  multitude  of  dreadful  ex- 
amples was  often  too  much  for  the  weakness  of  flesh 
and  blood.  From  many  a  sincere  believer  in  the  re- 
forming doctrines,  the  words  of  abjuration  were  ex- 
torted by  the  terrors  of  the  fire ;  and  these  appear- 
ances of  success  may  have  strengthened  the  Church 
in  her  system  of  butchery.  Repentance  itself,  how- 
ever, had  no  power  to  mitigate  her  spirit ;  and  cruel, 
indeed,  were  her  tender  mercies  towards  the  wretched 
victims  of  infirmity  and  fear.  They  were  spared  the 
death  of  martyrs,  only  that  they  might  linger  out  a 
life  of  martyrdom.  With  a  faggot  on  their  shoulder, 
they  were  compelled  to  witness  the  dying  agonies  of 
their  more  intrepid  brethren.  With  the  likeness  of 
Inhumanity  to-  a  faggot,  wrought  or  painted  on  their 
wards  those  sleeve,  and  with  the  mark  of  heresy 
who  abjured,  bnmded  on  their  cheek,  they  were  sent 
forth  to  public  scorn,  and  almost  to  utter  excommu- 
nication. They  who  wore  this  badge  of  infamy, 
were  nearly  sure  to  perish  for  want  of  employment 
and  support ;  they  who,  for  an  hour,  dared  to  lay  it 
aside,  were  as  certainly  consigned  to  the  flames.  And 
the  horrible  fate  which  thus  awaited  them,  passed 
into  a  proverb — Put  it  off  and  be  burnt,  keep  it  on  and 
be  starved.  But  the  soul  sickens  at  the  recital  of  these 
enormities.  It  finds  no  relief  but  in  the  recollection, 
that  the  Church  which  perpetrated  them  was  but 
Reaping  up  to  herself  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath. 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  381 

The  hour  of  vengeance  was  in  the  heart 
of  God.  It  was  drawing  nigh,  with  a 
noiseless  and  stealthy  pace.  "  Retribu-  to  the  Papacy  in 
tion,"  it  is  said,  "  has  a  foot  of  velvet,  Enslalld- 
but  a  hand  of  steel."  In  the  midst  of  the  cry  of  per- 
secution, the  approach  of  ruin  was  unheard,  and  un- 
suspected. But  the  arm  was,  even  then,  all  but  up- 
lifted, which  was  to  smite  the  scalp  of  this  gigantic 
and  godless  oppression.  The  trumpet  was,  even 
then,  at  the  mouth  of  the  angel;  and  the  blast  was 
about  to  go  forth,  which,  in  this  land,  at  least,  was 
to  level  its  battlements  in  the  dust. 


382  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   WRITINGS   OF   WICLIF. 

IT  has  already  appeared,  from  the  preceding  narra- 
tive, that  no  efforts  were  spared,  by  the  adversaries 
of  Wiclif 's  doctrine,  for  the  suppression  of  the  works 
in  which  it  was  conveyed  to  the  public.  Their  vigi- 
lance and  activity,  however,  were  most  signally  baf- 
fled. In  spite  of  this  posthumous  persecution,  the 
Reformer,  though  dead,  still  continued  to  speak ;  and 
it  has  been  calculated,  that  full  three-fourths  of  his 
writings  survive,  at  this  day,  to  proclaim  the  vanity 
of  all  forcible  resistance  to  the  progress  of  Truth. 
Of  those  compositions  of  Wiclif  which  have  perished, 
by  far  the  greater  part  consists  of  scholastic  treatises, 
the  loss  of  which  may  be  endured  without  any  im- 
moderate regret.  That  portion  which  remains  may 
be  contemplated  as  the  furniture  of  a  vast  and  ancient 
armory,  hung  round  with  the  weapons  of  a  warfare, 
the  final  issue  of  which  is  felt,  to  this  hour,  through- 
out the  civil  and  religious  institutions  of  our  country. 
The  collection  may,  properly,  be  divided  into  two 
main  compartments:  first,  those  works  of  Wiclif 's 
which  have  appeared  in  print ;  st condly,  those  which 
still  remain  in  manuscript.  To  these  may  be  added, 
such  of  his  writings  as  are  not  now  to  be  found  in 
this  country, — the  titles  of  certain  others  of  which 
nothing  but  their  names  is,  at  present,  known, — and, 
lastly,  a  notice  of  some  treatises,  which  have  been 
improperly  ascribed  to  Wiclif.  This,  accordingly,  is 
the  arrangement  adopted  in  the  following  catalogue.* 

*  It  has  been  already  stated,  in  the  Preface,  that  for  the  power  of  pre- 
senting this  catalogue  to  the  public,  I  am  indebted  to  the  liberality  of  Mr, 
Yaughan,  and  of  his  publishers. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  383 


SECTION  I. 

HIS  PRINTED  WORKS. 

1.  Translation  of  the  Neto  Testament,  printed  first  by  the  Rer. 
John  Lewis,  Minister  of  Margate,   in  the  county  of  Kent,  in  the  year 
1731 ;  and  again  in  the  year  1810,  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Hervey  Baber, 
Assistant  Librarian  of  the  British  Museum.    The  last  editor  remarks, 
that  "  the  text  of  Mr.  Lewis's  edition  was  taken  from  two  manuscripts, 
one  of  which  was  his  own,  and  the  other  the  property  of  Sir  Edward 
Dering,  Bart,  of  Surrenden-dering,  in  Kent.    From  the  former,  he  tran- 
scribed for  the  press  the  Four  Gospels ;  from  the  latter,  the  Epistles,  the 
Dedis  of  Apostlis,  and  the  Apocalips.    The  transcript  was  collated  by 
the  learned  Dr.  Daniel  Waterland,  Master  of  Magdalen  College,  Cam- 
bridge, with  ten  manuscripts  deposited  in  different  Libraries  at  Cam- 
bridge ;  and  afterwards  compared  by  Mr.  Lewis,  with  specimens  pur- 
posely selected  of  six  of  the  most  curious  manuscripts  in  the  University 
of  Oxford."    Of  that  edition  Mr.  Baber's  is  a  reprint. 

2.  Trialogus.    This  work  was  printed  in  1525,  with  the  following 
title :  Jo.  W-iclefi  viri  undiquaque  piissimi,  dialogorum  libri  quatuor ; 
quorum  primus  divinitatem  et  ideas  tractat:  secundus  uniyersarum 
creationem  complectitur :  tertius  de  vertutibus  vitiisque  contrariis  copio- 
Bissime  loquitur  :  quartus  Romanes  Ecclesise  sacramenta,  ejus  pestiferam 
dotationem,  Antichristi  regnum,  fratrum  fraudulentam  originem  atque 
eorum  hypocrisim,  variaque  nostro  sevo  scitu  dignissima,  graphice  per- 
stringit,  quae  ut  essent  inventu  facilia,  singulorum  librorum  turn  caput, 
turn  capitis  summam  indice  pernotavimus.  M.D.XXV.  4to.    The  volume 
is  without  the  name  of  the  printer  or  place.    It  is  said  to  have  been 
printed  by  Oporin,  at  Basil ;  and  on  other  grounds,  it  has  been  attributed 
to  Valentia  Kob.     See  Baber's  Memoirs  of  Wiclif,  p.  50.     There  are 
copies  of  this  work  in  the  Libraries  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  the 
Cathedral  at  York,  and  Lambeth  Palace.    They  are  also  to  be  found, 
though  very  rarely,  in  private  collections. 

The  following  statement  of  the  contents  of  the  several  chapters  of  the 
Trialogus,  will  further  assist  the  reader  in  judging  of  that  work. 

LIBRI  PREML 

Deus  sit  omnium  rerum  prima  caussa.  Deus  est  supra  omne  genus. 
De  triplici  suppositione.  Quomodo  Deus  est  quicquid  melius  est  esse 
quam  non  esse.  De  passionibus  et  proprietatibus  Dei.  Quod  Deus  sit 
trinus.  De  natural!  demonstratione  Trimtatis.  De  ideis.  De  inven- 
tore  idearum,  et  quae  res  habent  ideas.  De  intelligentia  Dei.  De  limiti* 
bus  idearum. 

LIBRI   SECUND1. 

De  universitate  creata.  De  triplici  mensura  aeternitatis.  De  com- 
ppsitione  rerum  et  creatione.  De  materiae  primal  quidditate  et  ejus 

e'uralitate.    De  ariima  intellectiva  et  suis  potentiis.     De  anatomia  cere- 
i  et  suis  hurnoribus.  De  sensationibus.  Si  immortalitis  spiritus  ration* 


384  LITE  OF  WICLIF. 

deduct  possiL  De  potentiis  intellectus  hominis.  De  angelis.  De  diver- 
Borum  angelorum  diverse  judicio.  De  angelorum  lapsu,  et  eorum  poena. 
De  pugna  angelorum.  De  proedestinatione  et  preescientia  Dei,  et  eorum 
caussie.  De  coelo  et  euis  partibus. 

LIBRI  TKRTII. 

De  vertutibus.  Quot  virtutes  sunt  in  intellectu  et  voluntate.  De  spe. 
De  peccato.  Quomodo  peccatum  veniale  et  mprtale  distinguuntur. 
Penes  quid  attentatur  peccati  gravitas.  De  gratia.  Omnia  eveniunt 
necessitate  absoluta.  De  septem  peccatis  mortal!  bus.  De  superbia.  De 
humilitaie.  De  invidia.  De  charitate.  De  ira.  De  patientia  et  mili- 
tate. De  accidia,  quae  medium  tenet  inter  septem  peccata  mortal!  a.  De 
virtute  accidise  opposita.  De  avaritia.  De  virtute  opposita  avaritiae. 
De  gula.  De  virtute  opposita  gulsa.  De  luxuria.  Decastitate.  De 
pronitate  ad  peccandum.  De  incarnatione  et  morte  Christi.  De  origi- 
nali  peccato.  De  incarnatione,  quomodo  Deus  potuit  incamari.  De 
numero  salvandorum.  Quomodo  Christus  cxcedit  ordines  AngeJorum, 
et  horn inuin.  Quomodo  nullus  sanctorum  est  laudandus,  nisi  quia 
Christnm  est  imitatus.  Quomodo  lex  Christi  in  infihitum  excedit  alias 
leges. 

1  LIBRI  ftUARTI. 

De  signis.  De  eucharistia.  Quid  dcmonstretur  per  hoc.  Quod  post 
consecrationem  manet  pania  Probantur  jam  dicta  superius  rationibua, 
Quomodo  et  qua  caussa  inolevit  hceresis  circa  eucharistc  sacramentum. 
Quomodo  panis  est  corpus  Domini,  non  existens  identice  corpus  ip- 
Bum.  De  identificatione  panis  cum  corpore  Christi.  Qd*  corpus  Christi 
non  putrefit.  Si  duo  corpora  possum  esse  in  eodem  loco.  De  baptismo. 
De  triplici  baptismo.  De  poenis  infantum  sine  peccato  actuali  deceden- 
tium.  De  confirmatione.  De  sacramento  ordinis.  Ifnjus  sacramenti 
confirmatio.  De  avaritia  cleri.  Saeculares  prppter  dotationem  sunt 
puniendi.  De  matrimonio.  Quid  sit  matrimonium.  De  caussa  libelli 
repudii.  Cum  quibus  verbis  vel  signis  matrimonium  celebrari  debet. 
De  poenitentia.  In  quo  signo  possumus  capere  veram  contritionem.  De 
extrema  unctione.  De  speciebus  ministrorum.  Quod  fratres  comminis- 
cuntur  haeresim  in  ecclesia.  De  mendicatione  fratrum.  Quod  mendi- 
catio  fratrum  est  infundabilis  in  scriptura.  De  literis  fraternitatum. 
Quomodo  fratres  false  vendunt  sua  merita  et  orationes.  De  indulgentiis. 
Quomodo  ordines  fratrum  sunt  introducti.  In  quo  fratres  legi  Christi 
contrarii.  De  variis  fratrum  abusibus.  Quomodo  fratres  seducunt 
regna  quss  incolunt  De  fratrum  fraude  atque  malicia.  An  domini 
temporales  debent  et  possunt  pppulares  Inuare  et  defendere  contra  fratres. 
De  statu  hominis  qui  consequitur  post  hanc  vitam.  De  ultimo  judicior 
quare,  et  ubi,  et  quando  erit.  De  dotibus  corporum  beautorum.  De 
dotibus  auimse.  De  poenis  damnatorum.  De  sensibus  bonorum  interio- 
ribus  et  exterioribus. 

3.  Ostiolum  Widen :  or,  Wickliffe's  Wicket.  This  piece  has  been 
several  times  printea.  "The  first  edition," observes  Mr.  Baber,  "was 
printed  at  Noremberch,  in  1546,  8vo. ;  of  the  second  edition,  I  know  no 
more  than  what  the  third  informs  me  in  its  title  which  is  as  follows  r 
*  Wickliffe's  Wicket,  faythfully  ouerseene  and  corrected  after  the  original 
and  first  copie.  The  lack  whereof  was  cause  of  innumerable  and  sham- 


LIFE   OF   WICLIF.  385 

full  erroures  in  the  other  edicion.  As  shall  easily  appear  to  them  that 
lyste  to  conf&rre  the  one  with  the  other.  Ouerseene  by  M.  C.'  It  is  a 
16mo.  w  thout  date,  place,  or  printer's  name  -f  and  the  language  of  it  is 
accommodated  to  that  of  the  time  :n  which  the  book  was  printed.  The 
last  ed.tion  appeared  in  1612,  printed  at  Oxford,  in  8vo.  and  was  edited 
by  the  learned  Henry  Jackson,  of  Corpus  Chnsti  College,  Oxford.  A 
copy  of  the  first  edition  of  this  very  rare  book  is  in  the  Bodleian  Library ; 
of  the  third,  in  Lambeth  Palace  Library  ;  and  of  the  last,  in  the  British 
Museum." 

4.  Ad  Regem  et  Parliamentum.      A  Latin  copy  of  this  tract  is 
among  the  Cotton  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum ;  a  copy  in  English  is 
preserved  in  Benet  College,  Cambridge  ;  and  another  in  Trinity  College, 
Dublin.    It  was  published  by  Dr.  James,  arid  printed  at  Oxford,  1608, 
quarto. 

5.  Objections  to  Freres.    This  piece  was  published  by  Dr.  James  in 
the  same  volume  with  the  treatise  last  noticed,  entitled,  "  Against  the 
Orders  of  the  Begg.ng  Friars."    The  volume  is  scarce,  but  may  be  seen 
in  the  British  Museum,  and  in  the  Bodleian  Library. 

6.  Deter minatio  de  Dominio.     E.  CoJd.  M?>-.  Joh.  Seldeni,  Arch. 
B.  10.     Th  s  paper  is  pr  nted  in  Mr.  Lews's  collection,  No.  30. 

7.  Ad  qufKsita  Regis  et  Concilii.     "  Dub  um  est  utrum  regnum  An- 
gliae  poss.t  legitime  imminente  necessitate  suae  defencionis  thesauruni 
regni  detinere  ne  djferatur  ad  exteros  etiam  Domino  Papa  sub  pcena 
sensurarum  et  vir'ute  obedient  is  hoc  ]>etente."    In  Hyperoo  Bodl.  163. 
This  paper  may  be  seen  in  Fox  i.  584. 

8.  Conclusiones  suee  cum  responsior/e  sua.     This  document  is 
printed  in  Wdl?:ngham,  Hist.  206—208.     Ad  Parliamentum  Regis  is 
another  reply  to  the  same  conclusions,  and  ;s  printed  in  Lewis's  Life  of 
Wycliffe.    This  tracU  is  noticed  as  Wycliffe's,  by  Lord  Chief  Justice 
Coke,  in  the  fifth  volume  of  his  reports.    These  papers  are  in  the  Selden 
M33.    (Archi.  B.  10.)  and  also  a  th;rd,  relating  to  the  same  series  of 
Articles. 

9.  ConfessJo  de  Eurharistia.    This  is  printed  by  Mr.  Lewis,  No.  21. 

10.  Dt  Jide  Eucharistia.     "  Credo  ut  Christus  et  Apostoli  docue- 
runt." 

11.  Excusationes  ad  Urbanum.     "Gaudeo  plane  dstegere  cuique 
fidem."    An  English  copy  of  ihis  letter  is  in  the  Cotton  Library. 

12.  Pro  egentibus  Presbyter  is.     Sunt  causce  qucb  urgeant  pan* 
periores,  or,  "Why  poor  priests  have  no  benefices."    This  tract  is  in 
the  Library  of  Tr.mty  College,  Dublin,  and  in  C.  C.  C.  Cambridge.    It 
was  first  printed  by  Mr.  Lewis. 


SECTION  n. 

Including  the  Wiclif  manuscripts  extant  in  England  and  Ireland. 
This  series  cantains  nearly  forty  MSX.  preserved  in  the  Library 
of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  the  existence  of  which  has  been  hi- 
therto unknown  to  the  Reformer's  biographers. 

1.  De  ultima  JEtate  Ecclesia.    Trinity  College,  Dublin,  Class  C, 
Tab.  No.  12. 

2.  Expositio  Decalogi.    This  exposition  is  in  the  British  Museum, 
Cott.  M3&  Titus  D.  xix.  In  the  Bodleian  is  a  more  extended  Exposition 

33 


386  LIFE   OF  WICLIF. 

of  the  Decalogue  in  Latin.    It  was  minutely  consulted  by  Dr.  James,  in 
composing  his  Apology  for  John  Wiclif. 

3.  The  Pore  Caitif,  sometimes  called  Pauper  Rusticus ;  sometimes 
Confessio  derelicti  Pauperis,  consists  of  a  series  of  tracts  in  English, 
designed  for  the  instruction  of  the  poorer  classes  of  the  people  in  the 
elements  of  the  Christian  religion.    It  is  described  by  its  author  as  "suf- 
ficient to  teach  simple  men  and  women,  of  good  will,  the  right  way  to 
heaven."    The  comments  on  the  Apostles'  creed,  and  the  pater-noster, 
are  followed  by  pieces  with  the  following  titles.    Sweet  sentences,  ex- 
citing men  ana  teamen  to  heavenly  desire.    Virtuous  patience.    Of 
temptation.     The  charter  of  heaven.     Of  ghostly  battle.     The  name 
Jesus.     The  love  of  Jesu.     The  desire  of  Jesu.    Of  very  meekness. 
The  effect  of  man's  trill.    Active  and  contemplative  life.     The  mir- 
ror of  maidens.    At  the  conclusion  of  the  last  piece  in  this  collection 
are  the  words,  "  Here  endeth  this  book  that  is  clepid  the  Pore  Caitif." 
Copies  of  this  work  are  in  the  British  Museum,  Lambeth  Library,  and 
Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

4.  De  Veritate  Scripture.    BibL  Bodl.  Archi.  A.  3021.  32.    Trin. 
Coll.  Dub.  Class.  C.  Tab.  1.  No.  24. 

5.  De  Hypocritarum  Imposturis.  This  tract  is  in  English,  beginning 
— "  Crist  commandith  to  his  discinlis,  and  to  alle  Christen  men  to  under- 
stonde  and  flee  the  sour  dow  of  Pharisees  which  is  ypocrisy."    C.  C.  C. 
Cambridge.  Trin.  Coll.  Dub.    The  following  pieces  also,  to  No.  19,  are 
in  the  same  collections. 

6.  De  Obedientia  Pr&latornm.    It  begins,  "Prelates  slandrcn  poor 
priests  and  other  Cristen  men,  that  they  will  not  obesthe  to  their  Sove- 
reigns," &c.  &c. 

7.  De  Clericis  Possessionariis,  which  begins,  "  Clerkes  Possessioners 
fordon  priesthood,  knighthood,  and  commoners." 

8.  Impedimenta  Enangelizantium.   This  is  the  same  with  the  piece 
described  as,    "  Of  Feigned  Contemplatif  Life,"  which  thus  begins — 
"First,  when  true  men  teach  by  God's  law,  wit,  and  reason,  that  echo 
Priest  oweth  to  do  his  wit,  and  his  will,  to  preche  Christ's  Gospel," 
dec.  &c. 

9.  Pro  amplexando  Evangelio.    The  English  title  of  this  piece  is, 
"  How  religious  men  should  kepe  certain  Articles ;"  beginning  thus — 
"  Christen  men,  preyen  meekly  and  devoutly  to  Almighty  God,  that  he 
grant  his  grace  for  his  endless  mercy  to  our  religious,  both  possessioners 
and  medicants,"  <fcc.  «fcc.    The  articles  are  numerous,  but  the  notices 
connected  with  them  are  very  brief. 

10.  How  Satanas  and  his  Priests,   and  his  feyned  Religions, 
casten  by  three  cursed  Heresies  to  destroy  all  good  living  and  meyn- 
tening  all  manner  of  Sin.    It  begins  thus, — "  As  Almighty  God  in 
Trinity  ordeineth  men  to  come  to  the  bliss  of  heaven  by  three  grounds," 
&c.  &c. 

11.  De  Nequitiis  ejusdem.    This  piece,  in  English,  has  a  title  begin- 
ning with  the  words— "How  Anti-Christ  and  his  Clerks  travellen  to  de- 
stroy holy  Writ,  and  to  make  Christen  Men  unstable  in  the  faith,"  <fcc.«fcc. 

12.  Super  Testamento  Francisci.    Wiclif  s  remarks  on  this  Testa- 
ment begin  thus—"  But  here  the  Menours  sayn  that  the  Pope  dischargeth 
them  of  this  testament."    The  comment  is  preceded  by  a  translation  of 
the  rule  of  St.  Francis,  as  given  by  Matthew  Paris. 

13.  For  Three  Skills  Lords  shulden  constrain  Clerks  to  live  in 
meekness,  wilfull  poverty,  and  discreet  penance  and  ghostly  tra- 
veile.    It  begins  thus—"  Open  teaching  of  God's  law,  old  and  new,  open 
ensample  of  Christ's  life,  and  his  glorious  Apostles,*' Ac.  &c. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  387 

'  14.  De  Prelatis,  et  eorum  OJficio.  This  is  the  piece  so  frequently 
cited  as  "Of  Prelates;"  beginning  thus — "Here  it  telleth  of  Prelates, 
that  Prelates  leaven  preching  of  the  Gospel,  and  ben  gostly  manquellers 
of  men's  souls." 

15.  Speculum  de  Antichristo.    The  English  copy  of  this  tract  pro- 
fesses to  describe  "How  Antichrist  and  his  Clerks  feren  true  Priests 
fro  preching  of  Christ's  Gospel  by  four  Deceits."    It  commences  thus — 
"First,  they  seyn  that  preching  of  the  Gospel  maketh  dissension  and 
enmity." 

16.  De  Clericorum  Ordinatione.  The  copy  of  this  preserved  is  also 
in  English,  entitled,  "Of  the  Order  of  Priesthood;"  beginning — "  For 
the  order  of  priesthood  is  ordained  of  God,  both  in  the  old  law,  and  in 
the  new." 

17.  De  Dominis  et  Servis.     Servi  primum  juste  ac  libenter,  or, 
"  Of  servants  and  Lords,  how  eche  shull  kepe  his  Degree :"  begin- 
ning— "  First,  servants  shullen  truly  and  gladly  serve  to  their  lords  or 
masters." 

18.  How  Prayer  of  good  Men  helpeth  much,  and  Prayer  of  sin- 
full  Men  displeaseth  God,  and  harmeth  themselves  and  other  Men  ; 
beginning — "  Our  Lord  Jesu  Christ  techeth  us  to  pray  evermore  for  all 
nedefull  things  both  to  body  and  soul." 

19.  De   Episcoporum  Erroribus;  beginning — "There   bin    eight 
things  by  which  simple  Christen  men  ben  deceyed."    Also,  "  De  xxxin 
erroribus  curatorum  /"  beginning — "For  the  office  of  curates  is  ordain- 
ed of  God." 

20.  How  Satanas  and  his  Children  turnen  works  of  mercy  upon 
Sodom,  and  deceyven  men  therein;  beginning — "  First,  Christ  com- 
mandeth  men  of  power  to  feed  hungry  poor  men ;  the  fend  and  his  techen 
to  make  costly  feasts,  and  waste  many  goods  on  lords,"  C.  C.  C.  Cam- 
bridge. 

21.  A  short  Rule   of  Life  for  eche  Man  in  general,  and  for 
Priests,  and  Lords,  and  Labourers  in  special ;  beginning — "  First 
when  thou  risest,  or  fully  wakest,  think  on  the  goodness  of  thy  God, 
how  for  his  own  goodness,  and  none  other  nede,  he  made  all  things  of 
nought,"  C.  C.  C.  Cambridge.    This  piece  is  followed  by  a  brief  com- 
ment on  the^l^e  Maria.. 

22.  Of  Wedded  Men  and  Wives ;  beginning—"  Our  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty speaketh  in  his  law  of  tweie  matrimonies  or  wedlocks,"  &c.  &c. 
C.  C.  C.  Cambridge. 

23.  Of  good  preching  Priests ;  beginning—"  The  first  general  point 
of  poor  priests  that  prechen  in  England,  is  this,"  &c.  &c.  C.  C.  C.  Cam- 
brigde. 

24.  Tfie  great  Sentence  of  the  Curse  Expounded;  beginning— 
"First,  all  heretics  against  the  faith  of  holy  writ,  ben  cursed  solemnly, 
four  times  in  the  year."  C.  C.  C.  Cambridge. 

25.  De  Blasphemia  contra  Fratres ;  beginning— " It  is  seide  that 
three  things  stourblin  this  realme,  and  specially  heresie."    Bibl.  Bodl. 
Archio.  A.  83. 

26.  De  Dominio  Divino,  is  a  tract  of  four  pages ;  beginning — "  Sith 
false  glossiris  maken  Goddis  law  derk,  and  letten  secular  men  to  sus- 
teyne,  and  kepe  it,  of  sich  false  glossis  schulde  each  man  bewar." 

27.  Super  Oratione  Dominica;  beginning — "When  we  seyn  our 
Fader  that  art  in  heaven,  we  ben  taught." 


388  LIFE   OF   WICLIF. 

cth  many  ways  to  mar  men  in  belief."    This  tract  extends  to  two  page* 
only. 

30.  Sermones  in  Epistolas,  and  Sermones  in  Evangelia,  are  the 
titles  of  his  horn. lies,  or  Darochial  discourses.     Copies  of  these,  more  or 
lew  perfect,  and  some  of  them  beautifully  written,  are  in  the  manuscript 
collections  of  the  British  Museum,  Cambridge,  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
and  elsewhere. 

31.  Tranatulit  in  Angli'dim  sermonem  Biblir  iota,  Ac.    Of  this 
memorable  work,  several  copies  are  extant ;  as  in  the  nrit-sh  Museum 
and  Lambeth  Palace.    The  costs  of  transrribinsr  obliged  our  ancestors  to 
secure  parts  of  the  sacred  volume ;  sometimes  including  the  four  gospels, 
sometimes  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  anil  not  unfrequently,  st.ll  smaller 
portions.     Dr.  Wh  taker  states  (Hist,  of  Richmondshire,  An.  Wiclif,) 
that  the  cony  of  Wicl.Ps  Bible,  in  Lambeth  Palace,  is  beautifully  illumi- 
nated ;  and  suggests  that  the  portrait  of  Sir  Antonio  More  was  probably 
obtained  from  such  a  sourer.     But  there  is  not,  nor  has  there  ever  been, 
a  manuscript  at  all  of  that  description  in  the  Lambeth  Library. 

32.  Translatio  dementis  Lanthoniensis.  "In  the  Earl  of  Oxford's 
Library,"  observes  Mr.  Lews,  "  is  a  M*.  entitled,  John  Wiclif's  Trans- 
lation  of  Clement  Lanthon's  Harmony  of  the  Gospels,  which  begins  thus 
— '  Clement,  a  Freest  of  the  Chirche  of  Lanthonth,'  "  in  12  parts.  Lan- 
thon  was  an  Austin  Friar,  who  flourished  in  1154.    Lelana  de  Scrip. 
Brit.  226.    There  is  a  copy  of  this  work  in  the  British  Museum,  Harl. 
M^s.  1862. 

33.  De  Stipendiis  Ministrorum.    This  tract  is  extant  in  English, 
entitled,  "How  men  shulden  find  Priests,"  and  beg  nning— " Think 
wisely,  ye  men  that  linden  priestes,  that  ye  don  this  alms  for  God's  love, 
and  help  of  your  soules,  and  help  of  Christen  men."  C.  C.  C.  Cambridge. 

34.  De  Ecclcsite,  Dominio;  in  English,  "Of  the  Chirche  of  Christ, 
and  of  hir   Membris,  and  of  hir  Governaunce ;"    beginning  thus — 
"Chr'.stis  Chirche  is  his  spouse,  that  hath  three  parts,"  &c.  &c.  Bib. 
Reg.  18,  13,  ix.     It  is  also  in  Trin  Coll.  Dub. 

35.  In  Apncalypsitt  Joannis.    The  exposition  is  introduced  by  a 
prologue,  and  the  Ibrmer  beg  ns  with  the  words — "The  undoyng  of 
teeynt  Joon  bitokeneth  Prelatis  of  hooli  Chirche,  that  understondith  th« 
vois  of  the  Gospels."     B;b.  Reg.  E.  1732.  p.  67. 

36.  P    Vita  Sacerdotum.     "  This  peril  of  Freris  is  the  last  of  eight 
that  falles  to  men  in  this  way."    B.bl.  Bodl.  Archi.  A.  3072. 

37.  Speculum  secularium  Dominorum.    Bibl.  BodL  Archim.  A. 
3849,  B  bl.  Reg. 

3S.  De  Incarnatione  Verbi.    Bib.  Reg.  E.  270  fol.    This  piece  is  in 
Lat  n  ;  beginning,  "  Prael.bato  tractatu  De  Anima,"  &c.  &c. 

39.  De  Ecclesid.  Cafhoticft,  sometimes  called,  De  fide  Catholici,  is 
a  manuscript  preserved  in  the  B<xlleian,  and  a  copy  taken  from  it,  by 
Dr.  James,  is  in  the  lam.beth  Library. 

40.  De  Modo  Orandi.    On  the  twelve  lettyngis  of  prayer.    Cott. 
MSS.  Titus,  D.  xix.     Bibl.  Bodl. 

41.  Epistola  ad  simplicis  Sacerdotes.    This  piece  does  not  reach 
beyond  a  page,  and  may  be  seen  in  the  Br-itisn  Museum.    B;b.  Reg.  17. 
B.  xvii. 

42.  De  Virtutibus  et  Vitiis.    This  treats  of  relig'ous  and  moral  obli. 
gations  after  the  fashion  of  that  age.     Cott.   MaS.  Titus,  D.  xix.    A 
production  of  the  same  kind,  but  somewhat  different  from  the  former, 
may  be  seen,  Bibl.  Reg.  7.  A.  xxvi.    Like  the  Pore  Caitif,  it  was  evident- 
ly designed  to  present  an  epitome  of  religious  instruction  to  the  poorer 
classes. 


LIFE   OF  WICLIF.  389 

43.  De  Sermone  Domini  in  Monte,  and  Octo  Beatitudines,  are 
different  names  of  the  same  discourse.    From  the  Reformer's  exposition 
of  the  Saviour's  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  seventy-four  erroneous  opinions 
were  extracted.    There  is  a  sermon  under  this  name  in  the  British 
Museum,  Cott.  MSS.    Titus,  D.  xix.     But  it  must  have  been  his  more 
extended  exposition  of  that  chapter  which  supplied  his  enemies  with 
such  material  for  accusation.    MS.  Twini.  A.  216. 

44.  De  Papa  Romana,  or  Schisma  PapcR.    Mr.  Baber  states  that 
this  tract  is  in  the  Bodleian.    There  is  a  copy  in  Trin.  Coll.  Dub. 

45.  De  questionibus   variis   contra    Clerum.    Lambeth  Library. 
Cott.  MSS.  151. 

46.  In  the  library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  is  a  large  manu- 
script volume,  including  the  following  pieces,  several  of  which  are 
known  to  be  those  of  Wiclif,  as  the  lOtn  and  llth,  which  are  noticed  by 
Huss ;  (Lewis  c.  ix.  179,  Baber,)  and  of  the  rest,   several  are  attributed 
to  the  Reformer  in  the  handwriting  of  the  transcriber.    MS.  326.  8. 
C.  5.  8. 

1.  De  ente  communi.    In  primis  supponitur  ens  esse,  pp.  1 — 5. 

2.  De  ente  primo,    Extenso  ente  secundum  ejus  maximam  amplia- 
tionem,  pp.  5—9. 

3.  De  purgando  err  ores,  et  veritate  in  communi.    Consequens  est 
purgare  errores,  pp.  9 — 15. 

4.  De  purgando  errores,  et  universalibus  in  communi.    Tractatu 
continentur  dicta  de  universalibus,  pp.  15—23. 

5.  De  universalibus.    Tractatus  de  universalibus  continet  16  capi- 
tula  cujus  primum,  pp.  23 — 37. 

6.  De  tempore.    In  tractando  de  tempore  sunt,  &c.  &c,  pp.  37 — 47. 

7.  De  intellectione  Dei.     Illorum  quee  insunt  Deo,    &c.   &c.   pp. 

8.  De  scientia  Dei.     Ex  dictis  superius  satis  liquet,  <fcc.  &c.  pp. 

9.  De  volitione  Dei.   Tractando  de  volitione  Dei,  &c.  &c,  pp.  70 — 91. 

10.  De  personarum  distinctions.    Superest  investigare  de  distinc- 
tione,  &c.  <fce.  pp.  91—115. 

11.  De  ideis.    Tractando  de  ydeis  primo  oportet,  &c.  <fec.  pp.  115 — 
122. 

12.  De  potentia  productiva  Dei.    Veritatum  quas  Deus  non  potest 
renovare,  «fec.  &c,  pp.  122—134. 

13.  De  sermone  Domini.    Licet  totum  Evangelium,  pp.  134 — 141. 

47.  In  a  volume  preserved  in  the  library  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
is  a  series  of  treatises  described  as  follows  :  Class  C.  Tab.  1.  No.  23. 

1.  Tractatus  Evangelii  de  Sermone  Domini  in  Monte,  cum  Ex~ 
fosiwrio  Orationis  Dominican.     Dividetur  in  tres  Libros. 

2.  Tractatus  de  Antichristo,  cum  Expositorio  in  xxiii.  xxiv.  xxv. 
cap.  Matthaei. 

3.  Tractatus  in  Sermonem  Domini,  quern  fecerat  valedicendo 
Discipulis  suis. 

4.  Tractatus  de  Statu  Innocentia. 

5.  Tractatus  de  tempore  in  13  capitulis. 

6.  Expositio  quorundam  locorum  Scriptures,,  Tit.  ii.  cap.   Heb.  i. 
cap.  et  Isaise  xxv.  cap.    There  is  also  an  Exposition  of  1  Thessalonians 
iv.  and  of.  John  xi.    But  these  are  merely  parts  of  his  homilies.    The 
volume  extends  to  400  pages ;  and  what  is  peculiar  to  this  collection  of 
Wycliffe's  MSS  it  has  a  copious  index. 

33* 


390  LIFE    OF   WICLIF* 

1.  Trin.  Coll.  Dub.  Class  C.  Tab.  1.  No.  24.    De  Simonia. 

2.  De  Apostasia.    The  first  piece  extends  about  forty  small    folio 
pages;  the  second  to  about  half  that  number;  the  last  consists  of  about 
eight  pages ;  v:z. 

3.  De  Blasphemia. — Another  volume  in  the  same  library  contains  a 
MS.  entitled,  "  Of  apostasy,  and  the  possessions  of  clerks."     This 
volume  further  contains  the  following  tracts.     Of  pseudo  friars.     Of 
the  eight  tcpes  which  God  wished  to  friars.     Of  Antichrist  and  hit 
ways.     Of  Antichrist's  song  in  the  church.    A  treatise  of  prayer. 
A  treatise  on  confession.     A  tract  of  Christian  obedience ;  beginning 

— "  Christ  forsooth  d  d  all  that  he  could  to  obey  to  lords."  In  the  volume, 
there  are  several  separate  homines,  meditations  on  various  subjects,  arid 
a  short  treatise,  beg.nninr— "How  are  questions  and  answers  put  that 
are  written  hereafter."  The  collection  forms  a  duodecimo  volume  of 
about  400  pages,  written  with  a  very  small,  but  legible  character.  Class 
C.  Tab.  6.  No.  6. 

48.  On  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins.    Bibl.  BodJ. 


SECTION  ra. 

The  following  pieces  are  in  the  Imperial  Library  of  Vienna ;  the  cata- 
logue of  which  may  be  seen  at  the  British  Museum. 

De  minoribus  fratribus  se  extoltentibus  De  sectis  nionachorum. 
De  gnat  a  or  sectis  norellis.  Defundatione  sectarvm.  De  secta- 
rum  perfuli.T.  De  st,lufione  Salhana.  De  Damon  io  meridiano. 
Responsiones  ad  xiv  arguineniu  Radalphi  Stiodi.  Litera  parva 
ad  qn  end  am  sor.ium.  Speculum  ntili  tan  tits  ecclesia.  De  oratione 
tt  ecc'esifB  purgalionf.  De  gradibns  cleri.  De  graduutionibus. 
DP.  duohus generibtis  heretical  nm.  De  quatuor  interpretationibus. 
Super  impost  Its  articuHs.  Socii  argnmentum  contra  veritateni. 
De  citationibus  frivol  is  f.t  aliis  versutiis  Antichrititi.  De  jura- 
mento  Artioldi  (de  Grannario)  colleclorix  Pap^B.  De  sex  jugis, 
De  exhortations  novi  docloijs  De  oidine  Christiana.  DC  vati- 
cinucinne.  Dialogus  intei  reritalem  et  mendticiunt.  Epislolo,  de 
peccaioin  Spiritum  Sanctum.  Lilera  parra  ad  quendatn  Socium. 
Litera  ad  Kpiscopiim  Lincoln,  deamore,  sivede  quintupled  quais- 
tione.  Epistola  ud  Archiepiscopum  Cantuar.  De  fjiicha*  isiiet 
et  penitentia.  De  oclo  quastiombus  propositis  discipulo.  De  tri 
plici  xinculo  amor  is. 


SECTION  IV. 

The  following  are  the  titles  of  pieces  which  are  known  only  by  these 
names.  Many  were  on  questions  of  science,  and  others  were  proba- 
bly different  designations  of  the  same  tracts. 

Quftstiones  hgicales.  Logica  de  singulis.  Logica  de  aggre- 
--f.'/.-.'.  De  proposiiinnibus  temporal ibus.  De  ivsolubilibua.  De 
exclusivis  et  exceptivis.  De  eausalibus.  De  comparitivis.  Dt 


LIFE  Of   WICLIF,  391 

conditionulibus.  De  disjunctivis.  Grammatical  tropi.  Mtta- 
physica  viilgaris.  Metaphysica  novella.  De  summa  intellectna- 
lium.  Defornn's  idealihus.  De  spiritu  quolihet.  De  spectebut 
hypotheticis.  De  esse  itilelligihili  creatures.  De  esse  in  suopro- 
lixo.  De  un&  commnnis  generis  assentia.  De  essentia  acciden- 
tiuin.  De  temporis  ampliation e.  De  physica  nalurali.  De  inten- 
tione  physica.  De  materid.  et  forma.  De  moteria  c&lestium.  D* 
raritate  et  r/ensiinfe.  De  inotu  locali.  De  velocitale  motus  localif. 
Dialogus  de  fratribus.  Johannes  a  rure  contra  fratres.  De 


*ii/  win  11  u.  i nipios.  Responsiones  ad  arguincnta  monachi  de  Sal- 
ley.  De  vnitate  Christi.  De  unico  salutis  Agno.  Christis  alius 
-non  expectandns.  De  humanitate  Christi.  De  dej'ectione  a 
Chrislo.  De  fide  et  perfidia.  De  fide  sacramentorum.  De  fide 
Evangelii.  Constitution es  ecclesice-.  De  censuris  ecclesia.  De 


sacerdotio  Levitico.  De  sacerdolio  Christi.  De  statuendis  pas- 
toribus  ad  plebem.  De  ordine  sacerdotali.  De  won  saginandis 
sacerdolibus.  De  nrinistrorum  conjugio.  Cogendi  sacerdotes  ad 
honesiatetn.  De  rilibus  sucramentorum.  De  quidditatehostia  con- 
secrutcE,.  De  quintnplici  Evangelic.  De  1  rinilate.  De  ex&.m- 
municatis  ahsulcendis.  Distinctiones  rerun  Theologicarum.  De 
Jonte  errorum.  De  falsatorihvs  legis  divintR.  De  immonalitate 
aiiinKR.  Ceremoniarum  chrouicon.  De  dilectione.  Concordan- 
ti(B  doctorum.  D?  contrarietaie  duorum  dominorum.  De  lege 
divina.  De  necessitate  futnrorum.  De  optribus  spiritualibus. 
lit  operihus  curporalibus.  Le  ordinaria  laicorutn.  Le  purgato- 
rio  piorum.  Position es  varies.  Re.pHcationes  et.  position es.  De 
prtBscito  ad  beatitudinem.  De  quaternariu  doctorum.  De  reli- 
giosis  privatis.  Le  studio  lectionis.  De  servitute  civili.  Theo- 
Jogice,  fj/acita.  De  virtute  orandi.  De  composition e  hominis.  De 
homine  misero.  De  Scholia  scripturarum  Glossa,  scripturarum. 
Glosstz  wulgares.  Glossca  manuales.  Glossa  novella.  Lectiones 
in  Danielem. 


SECTION  V. 

The  following  works,  with  the  exception  of  the  last,  have  been  im- 
properly attributed  to  Wiclif. 

De  Tribus  Sagittis.  Speculum  Peccatoris.  The  Confession  of 
St.  Brandoun.  Ghostly  and  Fleshly  Love.  The  two  former  of  these 
are  attributed  on  better  evidence  to  the  Hermit  Hampole. 

Commentarii  in  Psalteriumt  et  Cantica  Sacra.  This  also  is 
evidently  the  production  of  Hampole,  (Baber,  54.)  The  writer  of  a 
manuscript  note  to  a  copy  of  this  work  in  the  library  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  states  that  this  commentary  became  popular  with  the  disci- 
ples of  Wiclif,  and  that  the  latter  transcripts  of  it  were  accordingly 
greatly  interpolated  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Lollards.  The  correctness 
of  this  statement  is  hardly  questionable,  and  it  will  sufficiently  account 
for  the  circumstance  of  the  entire  work  being  ascribed  to  our  Reformer. 
There  is  a  ropy  in  the  British  Museum. 

Elucidarium  Bibliorum.  Sometimes  described  as  Prologus  ad 
integram  Bibliorwn  Versionem,  is  the  work  of  which  the  reader  will 


892  LIFE  OF  WICLIF. 

find  an  account  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  this  volume.  The  MS,  is  in 
the  British  Museum,  Harl.  MSS.  1666.  It  has  been  twice  printed;  first 
at  the  press  of  John  Gowghe,  in  1536,  subsequently  by  Robert  Crowley, 
in  1550.  The  title  of  the  first  edition  is  The  Dore  of  Holy  Scriptures. 
In  the  second,  it  is  thus  described.  The  pathway  to  perfect  know- 
ledge, the  true  copye  of  a  prologue,  wrytten  about  two  hundred 
yeares  paste  by  John  Wicliffe,  (as  maye  justly  be  gathered  bi  that, 
that  John  Sale  hath  wrytten  of  him  in  his  Boket  intitled  the  sum- 
marie  of  thejamouae  writers  of  the  Isle  of  Great  Britaine,)  the  ori- 
ginal whereof  is  found  wrytten  in  an  old  English  Bible,  betirixt  the 
Olde  Testament  and  the  Newe.  Which  Bible  remaineth  now  in  the 
Kyn*  his  majesties  chamber.  That  this  work  was  not  the  production 
of  Wiclif,  but  of  some  zealous  disciple  after  his  death,  is  placed  beyond 
doubt  by  its  contents.  See  Baber,  pp.  52,  53,  and  Lewis,  c.  ix. 

Ecclesia  Regimen  is  a  work  consisting  of  a  series  of  articles?,  expres- 
sive in  almost  every  sentence  of  the  doctrine  of  Wiclif.  In  the  copy  of 
these  articles  in  the  British  Museum,  there  appears  to  be  a  reference  to 
Gerson,  the  celebrated  Parisian  divine,  which,  if  so  intended,  must  prove 
that  copy  of  the  work  to  be  of  a  date  subsequent  to  the  time  of  Wiclif. 
The  piece,  however,  is  evidently  a  compilation  from  the  writings  of  our 
Reformer,  whether  made  by  himself  or  a  disciple,  as  it  not  only  contains 
a  summary  of  his  doctrine,  but  much  of  his  language. 


APPENDIX. 


SPECIMENS  OF  WICLIF'S   TRANSLATION   OF   THE  BIBLE. 


PSALM  II. 

WHI  gnastiden  with  teeth  hethene  men,  and  pupils  thoughten  veyn 
thingis.  The  knygis  of  eerthe  stpden  to  gidre,  and  princes  camen  to 
gidre  aghens  the  Lord  and  aghens  his  Crist.  Breke  we  the  boondis  of  hem, 
and  cast  we  away  the  yock  of  hem  fro  us.  He  that  dwelleth  in  hevenes 
schal  scorne  hem :  and  the  Lord  schal  bemowe  hem.  Thanne  he  schal 
speke  to  hem  in  his  ire ;  and  schal  distrouble  hem  in  his  stronge  ven- 
geaunce.  Forsothe  I  am  maad  of  him  a  kyng  on  Sion  his  hooli  hil,  pre- 
chynge  his  commandementis.  The  Lord  seide  to  me,  thou  art  my  sone  : 
I  have  gendred  thee  to  day.  Axe  thou  of  me  and  I  shall  gheve  to  thee 
hethene  men  thine  heritage :  and  t!ii  possessioun  the  teermes  of  the 
eerthe.  Thou  shall  governe  hem  in  an  yren  gherd,"  and  thou  shalt  breke 
hem  as  a  vessel  of  a  potter.  And  now,  ye  kyngis,  understonde :  ye  that 
deernen  the  erthe  be  lernid.  Serve  ye  to  the  Lord  with  dreed  :  and  make 
ye,  ful  oute,  joie  to  him  with  trembling.  Take  ye  lore  :  leest  the  Lord 
be  wrooth  sumtyme :  and  leest  ye  perischen  fro  the  right  weye.  Whaune 
his  ire  brenneth  oute  in  shorte  tyme,  blessed  ben  alle  thei  that  tristene  in 
him.— Public  Lib.  Camb.  Dd.  I.  27. 

PSALM  xvm. 

Lord  mi  strenkthe,  I  schal  love  thee.  The  Lord  is  my  stedfastnesse 
and  my  refuyt,  and  my  deliverer.  My  God  is  myne  helper,  and  I  shall 
hope  into  hym :  my  defender  and  the  home  of  my  heelpe,  and  myne 
uptaker.  I  schall  preise  and  inwardli  clepet  the  Lord,  and  I  schal  be 
saaf  fro  myne  enemies.  The  sorrowis  of  deeth  cumpassiden  me,  and 
the  floudis  of  wickidnesse  distroubliden  me.  The  sorowis  of  hello 
compassiden,  the  snaris  of  dseth  bifore  occupleden  me.  In  my  tribula- 
cioun  I  inwarldly  clepide  the  Lord,  and  I  cried  to  my  God ;  and  he  herde 
my  vois  fro  his  hooli  temple,  and  my  crie  in  his  sight  entride  into  his 
eeris.  The  erthe  was  movid  to  gidre,  and  tremblid  to  gidre.  The  fpun- 
dementisof  the  hillis  weren  troublid  to  gidre,  and  weren  movid  to  gidre, 
for  he  was  wroth  to  hem.  Smoke  flyede  in  the  ire  of  him,  and  fier  brent 
out  fro  his  face :  coolis  weren  kyndlid  of  him.  He  bowyide  down 
hevenes  and  came  down,  and  derkenesse  was  under  hise  feet.  And  ha 

•  An  iron  yard,  or  rod,  t  Call  upon, 


394  APPENDIX. 

flyede  on  Cherubym,  and  he  fleye  over  the  pennis  of  wyndis.  He  set- 
tyde  derkenessis  his  hidyng  place,  his  tabernacle  in  his  cumpass.  Derk 
watir  was  in  the  cloudis  of  the  lower  eir.  Ful  cleer  cloudis  passiden  in 
his  sight;  hail  and  the  coolis  of  fier.  And  the  Lord  thundride  from 
bevene,  and  the  highest  yeve  his  vnis  :  hail  and  the  coolis  of  fier  camen 
down.  And  he  sente  his  arewis,  and  distroied  tho  men.  He  multiplied 
leytis,*  and  distroublide  hem.  And  the  wellis  of  wateris  apperiden;  and 
the  foundementis  of  the  erthe  weren  schewid.  Lord,  of  thi  blamynge,  of 
Che  brething  of  the  spirit  of  thin  ire.— Pub.  Lib.  Camb.  Dd.  I.  27. 

MATTHEW,  CHAP.  V. 

And  Jhesus  seynge  the  people,  went  up  into  an  hil ;  and  whanne  he 
was  sett,  his  disci  nlis  camen  to  him.  And  he  openyde  his  mouthe,  and 
taughte  hem ;  anu  seide,  Blessid  be  pore  men  in  spirit ;  for  the  kyngdom 
of  hevenes  is  herun.t  Blessid  ben  mylde  men :  for  thei  schulenweelde 
the  erthe.  Blessid  ben  thei  that  mpurnen;  for  thei  schal  be  coumfortid. 
Blessid  be  thei  that  hungren  and  thirsten  rigtwisnesse  :l  for  thei  schal  be 
fulfilled.  Blessid  ben  merciful  men  :  for  thei  sc.hul  gete  mercy.  Biessid 
ben  thei  that  ben  of  clcne  herte  :  for  thei  schulen  se  god.  Blessid  ben 
pesihle  men:  for  thei  schulen  be  clepidgoddis  children.  Btessid  ben  thei 
that  suffren  pereecucioun  for  rightwisnesse  :  for  the  knygdom  of  hevenea 
is  hern.  Ye  schul  be  blessid  whanne  men  schul  curse  you,  and  schul 
pursue  you  :  and  schul  seye  al  yvel  agens  you  liynge  for  me.  Joie  ye 
and  be  ye  glade :  for  your  meede  is  plenteous  in  hevenes :  for  so  thei  han 
pursued  also  prophetia  that  weren  bifore  you.  Ye  ben  salt  of  the  erthe, 
that  if  the  salt  vanishe  awey  wherynne  schal  it  be  salted?  to  nothing  it 
is  worth  over,  no  but  it  be  cast  out,  and  be  defoulid  of  men.  Ye  ben  light 
of  the  world,  a  citee  sett  on  an  hill  may  not  be  hid.  Ne  me  teendith  not 
a  lamerne  and  puttith  it  undir  a  bushel :  but  on  a  candilstrk  that  it  give 
light  to  alle  that  ben  in  the  hous.  So,  schyne  your  light  bifore  men,  that 
thei  see  youre  gode  workis,  and  glorifie  your  fadir  that  is  in  hevenes. 
Nyle  ghe  deme  that  I  cam  to  undo  the  La  we  or  the  prophet  ie,  I  cam  not 
to  undo  the  lawe  but  to  fulfille.  Forsorhe  I  sey  to  you  till  hevene  and 
erthe  pasee,  oon  lettre,  or  oon  title,  schal  not  passe  fro  the  Lawe  til  alle 
thingis  be  don.  Therefore  he  that  brekith  oon  of  these  leeste  maunde- 
mentis,  and  techith  thus  men,  schal  be  clepid  the  Leest  in  the  rewme 
of  hevenes :  but  he  that  doth,  and  techith,  schal  be  clepid  greet  in  the 
kyngdoin  of  hevenes.— Saber's  Edit. 

1  CORYNTH,  Xia 

If  I  speke  with  tungis  of  men  and  of  aungels  and  I  haue  not  charite, 
I  am  maad  as  bras  sownynge,  or  a  cymbal  tynklygrie,  and  if  I  haue  pro- 
fecie  and  knowe  alle  mysteries  and  al  kynnyng,  and  if  I  haue  al  feith,  so 
that  I  moue  hillis  fro  her  place,  and  I  haue  not  charite  I  am  nought,  and 
if  I  departe  ulle  my  goodis  into  the  metis  of  pore  men,  and  if  I  bitake 
my  bodi  so  that  I  brenne  and  if  I  haue  not  charite  it  profitith  to  me  no 
thing,  charite  is  pacieht,  it  is  benynge.§  charite  enuyeth  not,  it  doith 
not  wickidji,  it  is  not  blowun,il  it  is  not  coueitous,  it  sekith  not  tho  thingis 
that  ben  hise  own.  it  is  not  stired  to  wraththe,  it  thenkith  not  youel,  it 
ioieth  not  on  wickidnesse,  but  it  ioicth  togidre  to  treuthe,  it  suffrith  alle 

*  Lights,  or  lightnings.  t  Theirs. 

t  .Rigtfulnesse  MS.  plures.       §  Beijign.       I  Puffed  up. 


APPENDIX.  395 

thingis,  it  bileueth  alle  thingis,  it  hopith  alle  thingis,  it  susteyneth  alle 
thingis.  charite  fallith  neuere  doun.  whethir  profecies  schulen  be 
voided,  eithir  langagis  schulen  ceese,  eithir  science  schal  be  destried. 
for  aparti*  we  knowen,  and  aparti  we  profecien,  but  whanne  that  schal 
come  that  is  parfyt,  that  thing  that  is  of  parti  schal  be  auoidid.  whanne 
I  was  a  litil  child  I  spak  as  a  litil  child,  I  undirstood  as  a  litil  child,  I 
thpughte  as  a  litil  child ;  but  whaane  I  was  raaade  a  man  I  voidide  tho 
thingis  that  weren  of  a  litil  child,  and  we  seen  now  by  a  myrourt  in 
derknesse,}  but  thanne  face  to  face,  now  I  knowe  of  parti,  but  thanne  I 
schal  knowe  as  I  am  knowuri.  and  now  dwellen  feith,  hope  and  charite 
these  thre,  but  the  moost  of  these  is  charite. — Baber's  Edit. 

*  ex  parte.  t  speculum.  }  in  asnigmate. 


THE  END. 


VALUABLE    WORKS 

PUBLISHED   BY 

J.  &  J.  HARPER,  82  CLIFF-STREET,  NEW-YORK. 


THE  TTTSTORY  OF  MODERN 
EUROPE,  from  the  rise  of  the 
Modern  Kingdoms  to  the  present 
period.  By  WILLIAM  RUSSELL, 
LL  D.,  and  WILLIAM  JONKS,  Esq. 
With  Annotations  by  an  Ameri- 
can. In  3  vols.  8vo. 
THE  HISTORICAL  WORKS  of 
the  Rev.  WILLIAM  ROBERT- 
SON, D.D. ;  comprising  his  HIS- 
TORY of  AMERICA;  CHARLES 
V.;  SCOTLAND,  and  INDIA. 
In  3  vols.  8vo.  with  Plates. 
GIBBON'S  HISTORY  OF  THE 
DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  THE 
ROMAN  EMPIRE.  In  4  vols. 
8vo.  With  Plates. 
The  above  works  (Russell's,  Robertson's,  and 
Gibbon's)  are  stereotyped  and  printed 
uniformly.  Great  pains  have  been  taken 
to  render  them  perfect  in  every  respect. 
They  are  decidedly  the  best  editions  ever 
published  in  this  country. 

ENGLISH  SYNONYMES,  with 
copious  Illustrations  and  Explan- 
ations, drawn  from  the  best  Wri- 
ters. By  GEORGE  CRABB,  M.A. 
A  mew  Edition,  enlarged.  8vo. 
[Stereotyped.] 

LIFE  OF  LORD  BYRON.  By 
THOMAS;MOORK,  Esq.  In  2  vols. 
8vo.  With  a  Portrait. 

HOOPER'S  MEDICAL  DICTION- 
ARY. From  the  last  London 
Edition.  With  Additions,  by  SA- 
MUEL AKBRLY,  M.D.  .8vo. 

COOPER'S  SURGICAL  DIC- 
TIONARY. In  2  vcls.  8vo. 
Greatly  enlarged.  [Stereotyped.] 

GOOD'S  (Dr.  JOHN  MASON)  STUDY 
OF  MEDICINE.  In  5  vols.  8vo. 
A  new  edition.  With  additions 
by  SAMUEL  COOPER,  M.D. 

THE  BOOK  OF  NATURE ;  being 
a  popular  Illustration  of  the  gene- 
ral Laws  and  Phenomena  of  Crea- 
tion, &c.  By  JOHN  MASON  GOOD, 
M.D.  and  F.R.S.  8vo  With  his 
life.  [Stereotyped.] 


DOMESTIC  DUTIES  ;  or  Instruc- 
tions to  Married  Ladies.  By  Mrs. 
WILLIAM  PARKES.  12mo. 

ART  OF  INVIGORATING  and 
PROLONGING  LIFE.  By  WIL- 
LIAM KITCHINJCR,  M.D.  18mo. 
[Stereotyped.] 

THE  COOK'S  ORACLE,  AND 
HOUSEKEEPER'S  MANUAL. 
By  WILLIAM  KITCIIINER,  M.D. 
Adapted  to  the  American  Public. 
12mo.  [Stereotyped.] 

GIBSON'S  SURVEYING.  Im- 
proved and  enlarged.  By  JAMES 
RVAN.  8vo. 

DA  VIES'  SURVEYING.  8vo. 

SURVEYORS'  TABLES.  12mo. 

BROWN'S  DICTIONARY  of  the 
HOLY  BIBLE.  From  the  last 
genuine  Edinburgh  edition.  8vo. 

BROWN'S  (J.)  CONCORDANCE. 
Printed  on  Diamond  type,  in 
the  32mo.  form.  [Stereotyped.] 

SERMONS  ON  IMPORTANT 
SUBJECTS,  by  the  Rev.  SAMUEL 
DAVIES,  A.M.,  sometime  Presi 
dent  of  the  College  of  New-Jer 
sey.  In  3  vols.  8vo. 

THE  WORKS  OF  THE  REV 
JOHN  WESLEY,  A.M.  With 
his  Life.  Complete  in  10  vols. 
8vo.  From  the  last  London  Edi- 
tion. With  a  Portrait.! 

LETTERS  FROM  THE  AEGEAN. 
By  JAMKS  EMERSON,  Esq.  8vo. 

THE  LITERARY  REMAINS  OF 
THE  LATE  HENRY  NEELB, 
Author  of.the  "  Romance  of  His- 
tory," &c.&c.  8vo. 

RELIGIOUS  DISCOURSES.    By 

Sir  WALTER  SCOTT,  Bart.  18mo. 

LIVES  OF  THE  SIGNERS  OP 
THE  DECLARATION  OF  IN- 
DEPENDENCE. 12mo. 

SKETCHES  FROM  VENETIAN 
HISTORY.  2  vols.  18mo 


Works  Published  by  J.  <$  J.  Harper. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS, 
From  the  earliest  period  to  the  pre- 
sent time.  By  the  Rev.  II.  II.  MIL- 
MAN.  In  3  vols.  18mo.  illustrated 
with  original  maps,  &c. 

THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BO- 
NAPARTE. By  J.  G.  LOCKHART, 
Esq.  With  copperplate  engravings. 
2  rols.  IMIIO. 

LIFE  OF  NELSON.  By  ROBERT 
SOUTHKY,  Esq.  With  a  portrait. 

THE  LIFE  OF  ALEXANDER 
THE  GREAT.  By  the  Rev.  J. 
WILLIAMS.  With  a  map.  Itimo. 

NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  IN- 
SECTS. Illustrated  by  numerous 
engravings.  16mo. 

THE  LIFE  OF  LORD  BYRON. 
By  JOHN  GALT,  Esq.  18mo. 

THR  LIFE  OF  MOHAMMED, 
Founder  of  the  Religion  of  Islam, 
and  of  the  Empire  of  the  Saracens. 
By  the  Rev.  GKORGK  BUSH,  A.M. 
With  a  plate.  18mo. 

LETTERS  ON  DEMONOLOOY 
AND  WITCHCRAFT.  By  Sir 
WALTER  SCOTT,  Bart.  18mo. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  BIBLE.    By 

the  Rev.  G.  R.  GLEIG.  In  2  vols. 
18mo.with  maps  of  Palestine,  &c. 

NARRATIVE  OF  DISCOVERY 
AND  ADVENTURE  IN  THE 
POLAR  SEAS  AND  REGIONS. 

By  Professor  LESLIE,  Professor 
JAMESON,  and  HUGH  MURRAY, 
Esq.  With  maps,  &c.  ISmo. 

LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  GEORGE 
IV.,  with  Anecdotes  of  Distin- 
guished Persons  of  the  last  FiAy 
Years.  By  the  Rev.  GEORGE  CRO- 
LY.  With  a  portrait.  ISino. 

NARRATIVE  OF  DISCOVERY 
AND  ADVENTURE  IN  AFRI- 
CA, from  the  earliest  ages  to  the 
present  time.  With  Illustrations 
of  the  Geology,  Mineralogy,  and 
Zoology.  By  Professor  JAMESON, 
JA.MES  WILSON,  Esq.,  and  HUGH 
MURRAY,  Esq.  With  a  map  and 
wood  engravings.  18mo. 

HISTORY  OF  CHIVALRY  AND 
THE  CRUSADES.  By  G.  P.  R. 
JAMES,  Esq.  18mo.,  with  a  plate 

LIVES  OF  EMINENT  PAINTERS 
AND  SCULPTORS.  By  ALLA> 
CUNNINGHAM,  Esq.  In  3  vols. 
18mo.  with  portraits. 

LIFE  OF  MARY  QUEEN  OF 
B 


SCOTS.  By  HENRY  GLASSFORD 
BBI.L.  In  2  vols.  I8mo.  Portrait. 

HISTORY  OF  POLAND.  By  J. 
FLETCHER,  Esq.  With  a  portrait 
of  Kosciusko.  18mo. 

FESTIVALS,  GAMES,  AND  A- 
MUSEMENTS,  Ancient  and  Mod- 
ern. By  HORATIO  SMITH.  18mo. 

HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  By  Rev 
M.  RUSSELL,  LL.D.  18mo.  With 
Engravings. 

LIFE  OF  SIR  ISAAC  NEWTON- 
By  DAVID  BREWUTKR,  LL.D 
With  a  Portrait. 

PALESTINE ;  or  the  HOLY  LAND. 
By  M.  RUSSELL,  LL.D.    I8mo. 
KMnlKS   OF    THE   EMPRESS 
JOSEPHINE.     By  Dr.  MEMKS 
I8mo.    Portrait. 

COURT  AND  CAMP  OF  BONA- 
PARTE. 18mo;  Portrait. 

THE  LIVES  OF  CELEBRATED 
TRAVELLERS.  By  J.  A.  ST. 
JOHN.  2  vols.  18mo. 

XENOPHON.  Translated  by  ED 
WARD  SPELMAN,  Esq.  and  Sir  M. 
A.  Cooper.  2  vols.  18mo. 

DEMOSTHENES.  By  LELAND. 
In  2  vols.  18mo. 

SALLUST.    By  ROBE.    18mo. 

MASSIISGER'S  PLAYS.  Designed 
for  family  use.  In  3  vols.  18mo. 
With  a  Portrait. 

FORD'S  PLAYS.    2  vols.  18mo. 

LIFE  of  DR.  E.  D.  CLARKE.  8vo. 

FRENCH  REVOLUTION  of  1830. 

LIFE  OF  VAN  HALEN,  &c.  8ro. 

MILLER'S  GREECE,  12mo. 

SMARTS  HORACE.  2  vote.  ISmo. 

RELIGIOUS  DISCOURSES.    By 

Sir  WALTER  SCOTT,  Bart.  18mo. 

PELHAM;  OR,  THE  ADVEN- 
TURES OF  A  GEHTLEM  AN.  A 
Novel.  In  2  vols.  12mo. 

THE  DISOWNED.  A  Novel.  In 
2  vols.  12mo.  By  the  Author  of 
"  Pelham,"  &c.  [Stereotyped.] 

DEVEREUX.  A  Novel.  In  2  vols. 
12mo.  By  the  Author  of  "  Pel- 
ham,"  «fcc.  [Stereotyped.] 

PAUL  CLIFFORD.     A  Novel.    In 

2  vols.  12mo.     By  the  Author  of 

"  Pelham,"  &c.    [Stereotyped.] 

FALKLAND.     A  Novel.     By  the 

Auilior  of  Ci  Pelham,"  &c.    12mo. 


HARPER'S  FAMILY  LIBRARY. 

The  following  opinions,  selected  from  highly  respectable  Journals,  wij 
enable  those  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  Family  Library  to  form  an 
estimate  of  its  merits.  Numerous  other  notices,  equally  favourable,  ana 
from  sources  equally  respectable,  might  be  presented  if  deemed  necessary. 

"  The  Family  Library. — A  very  excellent,  and  always  entertaining  Mis 
cellany.*—  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  103. 

"  The  Family  Library  presents,  in  a  compendious  and  convenient  form, 
well-written  histories  of  popular  men,  kingdoms,  sciences,  <fcc.  arranged 
and  edited  by  able  writers,  and  drawn  entirely  from  the  most  correct  and 
accredited  authorities.  It  is,  as  it  professes  to  be,  a  Family  Library,  from 
which,  at  little  expense,  a  household  may  prepare  themselves  for  a  con- 
sideration of  those  elementary  subjects  of  education  and  society,  without  a 
due  acquaintance  with  which  neither  man  nor  woman  has  claim  to  be 
well  bred,  or  to  take  their  proper  place  among  those  with  whom  they 
abide." — Charleston  Gazette. 

"  We  have  repeatedly  borne  testimony  to  the  utility  of  this  work.  It  is 
one  of  the  best  that  has  ever  been  issued  from  the  American  press,  and 
should  be  in  the  library  of  every  family  desirous  of  treasuring  up  useful 
knowledge." — Boston  Statesman. 

"  The  Family  Library  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  person.  Thus 
far  it  has  treated  of  subjects  interesting  to  all,  condensed  in  a  perspicuous 

and  agreeable  style We  have  so  repeatedly  spoken  of  the  merits  of  the 

design  of  this  work,  and  of  the  able  manner  in  which  it  is  edited,  that  on 
this  occasion  we  will  only  repeat  our  conviction,  that  it  is  worthy  a  place 
in  every  library  in  the  country,  and  will  prove  one  of  the  most  useful  as 
lt  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  publications  which  has  ever  issued  from 
he  American  press." — N.  Y.  Courier  fy  Enquirer. 

"The  Family  Library  is,  what  its  name  implies,  a  collection  of  various 
Iriginal  works  of  the  best  kind,  containing  reading,  useful  and  interesting 
to  the  family  circle.  It  is  neatly  printed,  and  should  be  in  every  family 
that  can  afford  it— the  price  being  moderate."— New-England  Palladium. 

"  The  Family  Library  is,  in  all  respects,  a  valuable  work." — Pennsyl- 
vania Inquirer. 

"  We  are  pleased  to  see  that  the  publishers  have  obtained  sufficient  en 
couragement  to  continue  their  valuable  Family  Library."— Baltimore  Re 
publican. 

"We  recommend  the  whole  set  of  the  Family  Library  as  one  of  the 
cheapest  means  of  affording  pleasing  instruction,  and  imparting  a  propel 
pride  in  books,  with  which  we  are  acquainted."— Philadelphia  U.  S.  Go» 
zette. 

"  It  will  prove  instructing  and  amusing  to  all  classes.  We  are  please* 
to  learn  that  the  works  comprising  this  Library  have  become,  as  they 
ought  to  be,  quite  popular  among  the  heads  of  Families."— N.  Y.  Gazette: 

"It  is  the  duty  of  every  person  having  a  family  to  put  this  excellent 
Library  into  the  hands  of  his  children." — N.  Y.  Mercantile  Advertiser. 

"  We  have  so  often  recommended  this  enterprising  and  useful  publica- 
tion (the  Family  Library),  that  we  can  here  only  add,  that  each  succes- 
sive number  appears  to  confirm  its  merited  popularity."—  N.  Y.  American 

"  It  is  so  emphatically  what  it  purports  to  be,  that  we  are  anxious  to  se*. 
it  in  every  family. — It  Is  alike  interesting  and  useful  to  all  classes  of 
readers." — Albany  Evening  Journal. 

"  The  little  volumes  of  this  series  truly  comport  with  their  title,  and  are 
in  themselves  a  Family  Library." — N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser. 

"  We  have  met  with  no  work  more  interesting  and  deservedly  popular 
than  this  valuable  Family  Library."— Monthly  Repository. 

"  The  plan  of  the  Family  Library  must  be  acceptable  to  the  American 
reading  community." — N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce. 

"  To  all  portions  of  the  community  the  entire  swles  may  be  warmly 
recommended." — American  Traveller. 

u  It  i»  a  delightful  publication."—  T~ut h.  Teller 


FAMILY  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY. 


THE  Publishers  have  much  pleasure  in  recording1 
the  following  testimonials  in  recommendation  of  the 
Family  Classical  Library. 

"  Mr.  Valpy  has  projected  a  Family  Classical  Library.     The  idea  is 

excellent,  and  the  work  cannot  fail  to  be  acceptable  to  youth  of  both  sexes, 

as  well  as  to  a  large  portion  of  the  reading  community,  who  have  not  had 

aefit  of  a  learned  education." — Gentleman's  Magazine,  Dec.  1829. 

"  We  have  here  the  commencement  of  another  undertaking  for  the  more 
general  distribution  of  knowledge,  and  one  which,  if  as  well  conducted 
as  \vo  may  expect,  bids  fair  to  occupy  an  enlarged  station  in  our  imme- 
diate literature.  The  volume  before  us  is  a  specimen  well  calculated  to 
recommend  what  are  to  follow.  Leland's  Demosthenes  is  an  excellent 
work." — Lit.  Gazette. 

"  This  work  will  be  received  with  great  gratification  by  every  man  who 
knows  the  value  of  classical  knowledge.  All  that  we  call  purity  of  taste, 
visrmir  of  style,  and  for««  of  thought,  has  either  been  taught  to  the  modern 
world  by  the  study  of  tho  classics,  or  has  been  guided  and  restrained  by 
thus.-  illustrious  models.  To  extend  the  knowledge  of  such  works  is  to 
ilo  ;i  public  service." — Court  Journal. 

u  The  Family  Classical  Library  is  another  of  those  cheap,  useful,  and 
it  works,  which  we  lately  spoke  of  as  forming  an  era  in  our  pub- 
lishing history." — Spectator. 

"  The  present  era  seems  destined  to  be  honourably  distinguished  in 
literary  history  by  the  high  character  of  the  works  to  which  it  is  succes- 
sively giving  birth.  Proudly  independent  of  the  fleeting  taste  of  the  day, 
they  boast  substantial  worth  which  can  never  be  disregarded ;  they  put 
forth  a  claim  to  permanent  estimation.  The  Family  Classical  Library  is 
a  noble  undertaking,  which  the  name  of  the  editor  assures  us  will  be  exe- 
cuted in  a  style  worthy  of  the  great  originals." — Morning  Post. 

"  This  is  a  very  promising  speculation ;  and  as  the  taste  of  the  day  runs 
just  now  very  strongly  in  favour  of  such  Miscellanies,  we  doubt  not  it 
will  meet  with  proportionate  success.  It  needs  no  adventitious  aid,  how- 
ever influential ;  it  has  quite  sufficient  merit  to  enable  it  to  stand  on 
its  own  foundation,  and  will  doubtless  assume  a  lofty  grade  in  public 
favour." — Sun. 

"  This  work,  published  at  a  low  price,  is  beautifully  got  up.  Though 
to  profess  to  be  content  with  translations  of  the  Classics  has  been  de- 
nounced as  'the  thin  disguise  of  indolence,'  there  are  thousands  who 
have  no  leisure  for  studying  the  dead  languages,  who  would  yet  like  to 
know  what  was  thought  and  said  by  the  sages  and  poets  of  antiquity. 
To  them  this  work  will  be  a  treasure." — Sunday  Times. 

"  This  design,  which  is  to  communicate  a  knowledge  of  the  most 
esteemed  authors  of  Greece  and  Rome,  by  the  most  approved  translations, 
to  those  from  whom  their  treasures,  without  such  assistance,  would  be 
hidden,  must  surely  be  approved  by  every  friend  of  literature,  by  every 
lover  of  mankind.  We  shall  only  say  of  the  first  volume,  that  as  the 
execution  well  accords  with  the  design,  it  must  command  general  appro- 
bation."— The  Observer. 

"  We  see  no  reason  why  this  work  should  not  fii.d  its  way  into  the 
boudoir  of  the  lady,  as  well  as  into  the  library  of  the  learned.  It  is  cheap, 
portable,  and  altogether  a  work  which  may  safely  be  placed  in  the  hands 
of  persons  of  both  sexes."—  Weekly  Free  Press. 


STANDARD  HISTORIES. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MODERN  EUROPE;  from 
the  Rise  of  the  Modern  Kingdoms  to  the  present 
period.  By  WILLIAM  RUSSELL,  LL.D.  and  WILLIAM 
JONES,  Esq.  With  Annotations  by  an  American. 
In  3  vols.  8vo.  With  plates.  Fine  edition. 

THE  HISTORICAL  WORKS  of  the  Rev.  WILLIAM 
ROBERTSON,  D.D. ;  comprising  his  HISTORY  OF 
AMERICA;  CHARLES  V.;  SCOTLAND;  and 
INDIA.  In  3  vols.  8vo.  With  plates.  Fine  edition. 

GIBBON'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  DECLINE  AND 
FALL  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  In  4  vols. 
8vo.  With  plates.  Fine  edition. 

3r  Harper's  editions  of  the  above  works  are  stereotyped,  and  printed 
uniformly.  Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  render  them  perfect  in  every 
espect.  They  are  decidedly  the  best  editions  ever  published  in  this 
ountry. 


MEDICAL  WORKS. 


lOOPER'S  MEDICAL  DICTIONARY.  From  the 
last  London  Edition.  With  Additions,  by  SAMUEL 
AKERLY,  M.D.  8vo. 

COOPER'S  SURGICAL  DICTIONARY.  New  edi- 
tion, greatly  enlarged.  8vo. 

FOOD'S  (Dr.  J.  MASON)  STUDY  OF  MEDICINE. 

In  5  vols.  8vo.     A  new  edition.     With  Additions, 
by  SAMUEL  COOPER,  M.D. 

*'  Dr.  Good's  extensive  reading  and  retentive  memory  enable  him  to 
nliven  the  most  common  elementary  details  by  interweaving  curious, 
ncommon,  or  illustrative  examples  in  almost  every  page.  We  have  no 
esitation  in  p -enouncing  the  work,  beyond  all  comparison,  the  best  of  the 
.ind  in  the  English  language." — Medi&t-Chirurgical  Review. 


ENGLISH  SYNONYMES ;  with  copious  Illustra 
lions  and  Explanations  drawn  from  the  best  Writers 
By  GEORGE  CRABB,  M.A.  A  new  Edition,  8vo. 

This  valuable  work  is  now  used  in  several  Colleges  in  the  Unitet 
States. 

"  The  Importance  of  a  knowledge  of  synonymes  is  very  great — indeed 
indispensable  to  an  accurate  scholar  ;  yet  the  study  is  much  neglected,  as 
the  loose  style  of  many  of  our  best  -writers  but  too  amply  attests."— New- 
York  Daily  Advertiser. 

"It  deserves  a  place  in  every  library,  and  on  the  table  of  every  studeni 
who  desires  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  English  language" — New-York 
Journal  of  Commerce. 

u  This  ha*  now  become  a  standard  work,  and  ought  to  find  a  place  in 
the  library  of  every  gentleman  who  aspires  to  elegance  or  precision  of 
style." — Xeic-Yi>rk  Morning  Herald. 


THE  BOOK  OF  NATURE;  being  a  popular  Illus 
tration  of  the  general  Laws  and  Phenomena  of 
Creation,  &c.     By  JOHN  MASON  GOOD,  M.D.,  F.R.S. 
8vo.    Sixth  Edition.    To  which  is  prefixed  the  Life 
of  the  Author. 

"  From  a  man  of  Dr.  Good's  acknowledged  talents  and  learning,  it  Is 
natural  to  expect  something  uncommon.  Such  expectations  will  be  fully 
realized  in  his  '  Book  of  Nature.'  We  have  read  the  work  with  much 
meres',  and  instruct  ion.  The  author  possessed,  in  an  eminent  degree, 
th.3  happy  talent  of  tracing  his  subjects  from  their  elementary  principles 
to  their  sublime  results,  and  of  interspersing  his  lectures  with  pertinent 
and  interesting  anecdotes.  No  person  who  thirsts  for  knowledge  can  read 
his  '  Book  of  Nature'  without  having  his  mind  enriched  in  the  principles 
of  natural  philosophy  far  beyond  he  would  have  thought  possible  by  a 
book  of  its  size.  It  is  a  safe  book  for  any  person  to  read.  There  is  no 
skepticism  m  it." — New-England  Christian  Herald. 

LETTERS  AND  JOURNALS  OF  LORD  BYRON; 

with  Notices  of  his  Life.     By  THOMAS  MOORE,  Esq. 
In  2  vols.  8vo.     With  a  Portrait 

"  We  do  not  know  where  the  letters  are  to  be  found  in  any  language 
which  better  repay  a  perusal.  Perhaps,  as  mere  models  of  the  epistolary 
style,  they  are  not  so  exquisite  as  some  that  might  be  cited.  Even  of  this, 
lowever,  we  are  far  from  being  sure.  If  they  do  not  equal,  for  instance, 
IP  grace  and  elegance  those  of  Gray  or  Lady  Mary, — if  they  are  not  speci- 
mens of  that  inimitable,  ineffable  bavardage  which  makes  those  of  Madame 
de  Sevigne  so  entirely  unique,— they  fully  rival  the  best  of  them  in  spirit, 
piquancy,  and,  we  venture  to  add,  wit ;  while,  like  the  epistles  of  Cicero, 
:hey  not  unfrequently  rise  from  the  most  familiar  colloquial  ease  and  free- 
dom into  far  loftier  regions  of  thought  and  eloquence.  We  were  particu- 
larly struck  with  this  peculiarity.  We  scarcely  read  one  of  them  without 
aeing  surprised  into  a  srnile — occasionally  into  a  broad  laugh — by  some 
felicitous  waggery,  some  sudden  descent  from  the  sublime  to  the  ridicu- 
lous, while  there  is  many  a  passage  in  which  the  least  critical  reader  will 
not  fail  to  recognise  the  hand  that  drew  Childe  Harold." — South.  Review. 


STANDARD  WORKS, 


GIBSON'S  SURVEYING.  Improved  and  enlarged. 
By  JAMES  RYAN.  8vo.  With  the  necessary  plates. 

DAVIES'S  SURVEYING.    8vo.    A  new  \vorkT~ 
SURVEYORS'  TABLES.   12mo.  Carefully  revised. 

BROWN'S  DICTIONARY  of  the  HOLY  BIBLE. 
From  the  last  genuine  Edinburgh  edition.  8vo. 

BROWN'S  (J.)  CONCORDANCE.    32mo. 

SERMONS  ON  IMPORTANT  SUBJECTS.  By 
Rev.  SAMUEL  DAVIES,  A.  M.  In  3  vols.  8vo. 

THE  WORKS  OF  REV.  JOHN  WESLEY,  M.A. 
With  his  Life.  10  vols.  8vo.  With  a  portrait. 

LETTERS  FROM  THE  AEGEAN.  BY  JAMES  EMER- 
SON, Esq.  8vo.  With  Engravings. 

THE  LITERARY  REMAINS  of  the  late  HENRY 
NEELE,  Author  of  the  "  Romance  of  History."  8 vo. 

RELIGIOUS  DISCOURSES.     By  WALTER  SCOTT. 

PRESENT  STATE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  ALL 
PARTS  OF  THE  WORLD.  By  FREDERIC  SCHO- 
BERL.  12mo. 

THE  CONDITION  OF  GREECE  in  1827  and  1828. 
By  J.  P.  MILLER.  12mo. 

LIFE  AND  REMAINS  OF  DR.  EDWARD  DAN- 
IEL CLARKE.  8vo. 

VAN  HALEN'S  NARRATIVE  of  his  Imprisonment 
in  the  Dungeons  of  the  Inquisition,  his  Escape,  his 
Journey  to  Madrid,  &c.  &c.  8vo. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  IN  FRANCE 
IN  1830.  12rno. 

SMART'S  HORACE.    2  vols.  18mo. 


POPULAR  WORKS, 

Recently  published  by  J.  &  J.  HARPER,  New- York. 


Olhbon's  Rom*1  (fine)  4  r.  8ro 

•Dibdin's  Reminiscences  Rvo. 
Life  of  Dr  Clarke                   $vo 

IIiNtory  of  Modern  Kurone,  3  r.  Svo. 
Life  of  fiyron,  by  Mooro.  .2v.  Svo. 
Conor's  Sura:  I>'rtionary,2v.8vo. 
Hooper'*  Mod.  Dictionary,  2  v.  Svo. 
Wesley's  Worts  aud  Sermons  Svo. 
DavleVs  Sermons  3  v.  Svo. 
Rev   Robt   Hnll'v  Works  3  v  Svo 

Neele's  Life  and  Remains  ...  .8*0, 
Moore'sLife  of  Fitzgerald  2  v.  15/no. 
French  Revolution,  1  830  .   .  .  J  2rno. 
France,  by  Lady  Morgan,  2  v.  12mo 
Modern  American  Cookery,  16mo. 
Housekeeper's  Manual  ISrno. 

&  Kid's  Study  of  Medicine  5  v.  Svo 

Mathematical  Tables  •.••••l*2nio 

Good's  B<x>k  of  Nature  Svo 

Lives  of  Signers  of  Deo  Ind.  12rno 

B  rooks  's  Poems      .    .  .         12mo. 

C^abh's  diglinb  Svnonymes.  .Svo. 

Brown's  Bible  Dictionary  ...  .  Svo. 
Brown's  Concordance  32mo 

Schoberl's  Christianity  12ma 

Davids'    Surveying    •     .  •     •  Svo 

S  nart'a  I!   race             2  vola.  IHrno. 

Tho  Northern  Traveller  -  »  -  -  l^nio. 

levies'  Shjidr*  end  fihsdow*  Svo 

Xcnophon       »      .....  2  v  ISmo. 

British  Spy,  by  Win  12rao. 
Cox'i  Columbia  River  Svo. 

Demosthenes  2  v.  18mo. 
S  M  lust  ISmo. 
Mattsingor's  Plays  .....3  T  18mo. 

AnnnhTryon  County....  —  Svo, 

Ford's  Plays  2  v.  18iuo. 
For  FAMILY  LIBRARY  see  Cat- 

alogue of  "  Valuable  Works." 

The  Younger  Son  ......  2  v  J  2mo 

Heiress  of  Bruges  2v.  12ino. 

Paul  Cliflfbrd        ......  4y  12tno 

The  Rivals  .  .  .2  v  12mo 

Rom.  of  History,  Spain  .2r  I2rno. 

Rom  of  History  FVfl7ic^2v  12<no 

Sisme^e  Twins      •   «  ....  12mo 

Rom  of  Hist  Italy  ....2v  12mo 

Dutchman's  Fireside      2  T  12mo 

Hungnrian  Tales  •••  .  2v  12rno 

Cvril  Thornton    2  v  12ino 

Romance  and  Reality  •«»2  v  12rno. 

The  Young  Duke  2  T  I2mo. 

The  False  Step,  <fcc.  ..  .2  v.  12mo. 

Caleb  Williams  ...  ...2v  12mo 

Philip  Augustus  «»»••».  2  v  12mo 

The  Club-Book  2v.  12mo. 
De  Vere  2v.  12mo. 

LawrieTodd  2v.  J2mo. 
Beatrice  2v.  12mo. 
Yesterday  in  Ireland-  ..  .2  v.  12mo. 

Evelina    ..«•••••  ...'.  .2T  12mo 

St  Valentine's  Day,  &c.  2v.  12mo. 

Seaward's  Narrative  ««.  «3  v  12mo 

Jacqueline  of  Holland  .  .2  v.  12mo. 

Adventures  of  a  Page  .  2  v.  12mo. 
Rybrent  De  Cruce    ..  .  .2  v.  12mo 

Haverhill  2  v.  12mo. 

The  School  of  Fashion,  2  v.  12mo. 

Stratton  Hill  2v.  12mo 

Almack's  Revisited  2  v.  12mo. 

Campaigns  of  a  Cornet,  2  v.  12mo. 

Tales  of  Military  Life  .  .2  v  12mo. 

Wai  ter  Colyton  2  v.  12mo. 

Fuscartui  2  v.  12mo. 
The  Country  Curate  ....2v.  32:no. 

The  Lost  Heir  2  v.  12mo. 
Atones  of  a  Bride       .  »  2  v  12nio 

Maxwell  2v.  12mo. 

Th»*  English  at  Homo     2  v  12nio 

The  Denounced  2  v  12mo« 

Sketches  of  Irish  Character.  .  12mo. 

Southrnuai)      •    .».»».  2  v  l^mo 

Hijji  Baba  ..2v.  12»;o. 

Porithumous  Paj>ers  ........  12mo. 

Traits  of  Travel  2  v.  12mO 

Diary  of  a  Physician.  .  .2  T.  18mo. 

AN 


DAY 
OVERDUE. 


NOV    18  1S32 


DEC  It  1939 


IN  STACKS 

JM-        *7 
IRN24 


NOV     3  2000 
| 

DECll  3  2000 


i.-32 


04090 


• 


